Percy Jackson and the Aphrodite Trap
by P. Hanson
Summary: Percy visits a camp still recovering from the Battle of the Labyrinth and is thrust into a new quest to help Olympus before he even gets a chance to sit down. The entrance to Olympus has been forced shut and they must pass through the secret back door, with realms heavily protected by each Olympian, including Aphrodite, who has the worst realm of all. Mostly T, Some M Rated scenes.
1. Chapter 1: It All Happened So Fast

**Percy Jackson and the Aphrodite Trap**

**By P. A. Hanson**

**Prologue**

I was tired. I don't think I've ever been so tired. Every part of me hurt and I deeply wished to find some water to help me, water heals me you see, but there's no son of the sea god assistance in this place. Maybe if I could somehow convince the girls to stop, I could take the last of my nectar. In the end I didn't need to.

"Let's take a break", Thalia announced.

I looked around relieved, even if Thalia was being bossy, but I have got to admit she's better at this stuff than me, she doesn't even look tired, I can only assume it's something to do with her huntress enchantment. Annabeth on the other hand looked as tired as I felt, and she dropped her backpack in the passage without a second thought and sat down. I joined her and took out some ambrosia squares and offered one to her, which she grudgingly accepted.

"This looks like an abandoned subway", I said, doing my best to distract from the pain we were in.

"Like, duh, Mister Seaweed's genius strikes again." Annabeth snapped sarcastically. I cringed. She was not going to let the Rachel thing go no matter how much I protested my innocence.

"You were there Annabeth." I sighed. "I had nothing to do with what she did, and she did give us a prophecy, so why don't you try to explain that, wisest of girls." Annabeth just looked at me murderously.

**Chapter One**

**It All Happened So Fast**

I was so excited to be visiting Camp Half-Blood during the winter break, and at first glances had mostly recovered from the Battle for the Labyrinth in the summer. Things had gone quiet so far, with no sign of Kronos or Luke, or any other Titan or monster for that matter. The camp seemed in working order and had suffered no more attacks just like me. Still, it was a little too quiet for my liking. Annabeth came to visit me in Cabin three and I was surprised to find that she had suffered no monster attacks either, which we were both happy and worried about. I told her about my Dad's visit and all I had been up to since my fifteenth birthday, but I couldn't bring myself to tell her about Nico's plan for fighting Luke, as I was sure she wouldn't allow me to do something so stupid. She told me about staying with her dad in San Francisco, and was just telling me about Beckendorf and Clarrise's new camp defences, when a shadow came from the front door. We both look around, It was Rachel Elizabeth Dare, soaking wet, and stark naked.

My jaw dropped, I'd never seen a naked girl before, and she was beautiful.

"Rachel! What's this?" Annabeth shouted, turning to looking at me in the most evil way imaginable.

Rachel said nothing, in fact she looked blank. "RACHEL!" Annabeth screamed.

I was completely paralysed, staring at drips of water from her red hair running down her naked body. Annabeth punched me in the arm. "What do you think you are looking at?" She shouted, "Go get a sheet or something."

I snapped out of my funk and ran over to my bed and grabbed a bed sheet, my heart beating fast. Annabeth grabbed it off me and covered Rachel with it and sat her down on a deck chair in the corner of the room.

"You two better had a good explanation for this." She said to me in a low voice.

"What have I done?" I proclaimed loudly, "I didn't make her come here like this! I didn't even know she was at the camp!"

Annabeth was just about to throw herself into a rage when Rachel spoke in a low voice, a deep gravelly tone, deeper than I ever imagined she could speak. We both looked at her in shock. Her eyes were white, and her pale face looked straight ahead, ignoring us completely.

_"Three will be chosen, three will be asked,_

_Three of six will fail what is tasked,_

_They will go through the entrance of the Oldest Tower,_

_ Find the secret door to the halls of Power,_

_Through the realms of the mighty, your quest must travel,_

_The puzzles therein, you must unravel,_

_When you get to the palace you must be composed,_

_And open the doorway that has been closed,_

_The journey through will leave them shaken,_

_Future's lost, Innocence taken."_

"That was a prophecy." I said, confused.

"It's not possible, she's not an Oracle, and why did she come to you?"

"Maybe she came to you." I said defensively.

"She came to your cabin, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth stated, as new voice butted in.

"Hello, Percy, Annabeth. Where did you come from? I feel a bit dappy!"

We both looked at Rachel, who apart from wearing a bed sheet looked quite normal.

"DAPPY!" Annabeth shouted, "Have you looked at what you are wearing?"

Rachel looked down. "A toga of some kind?"

"YOU WALKED IN HERE NAKED!" Annabeth screamed, almost losing it completely.

"Oh. I must have given quite a show." She smiled. "Am I wearing a bed sheet?"

"You're not embarrassed?"

"Nah. I had a rather bohemian upbringing, so it's never bothered me much. I quite like being naked, but I like these new BED clothes!" Rachel said, eyes sparking. I cringed as I could see Annabeth getting angrier.

"Well I Don't like it! Why did you come to Percy's cabin?"

"It's Poseidon's cabin, not Percy's"

"ANSWER MY QUESTION!" Annabeth choked out, almost turning red. I took a step back, not wanting to get in her way while she was like this.

"I have no idea" Rachel said calmly, "I came to visit you, Percy, Tyson and Grover at the camp, and Chiron let me stay in the Big House, as I don't have a godly parent. I was taking a shower, when the next thing I know, I'm sat here, being shouted at." I wondered how Rachel managed to walk from the Big House to here naked, without being noticed, then I cringed at the thought of what camp gossip would be like if a naked girl was seen entering my cabin. I decided it was time I spoke up.

"I think we should get her back to the Big House and inform Chiron of the Prophecy."

"I've not finished with you yet, Dogfish Breath!" Annabeth spurted out.

I didn't understand why Annabeth was so angry at me, for something which wasn't my fault at all. Dogfish Breath was a new low. I walked away and grabbed a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and shorts and handed them to Rachel.

"There is a bathroom back there, go get changed." I said, ignoring Annabeth altogether. To my delight and dismay, Rachel just dropped the sheet and got dressed in front of us, grinning mischievously.

"Ugh. For Zeus's sake girl!" Annabeth proclaimed loudly, "What are you staring at Jackson?" I turned away for Annabeth's sake, trying unsuccessfully to cover a grin, worrying like hell what Annabeth was going to do next.

"I spoke a prophecy? That's so cool!" Rachel said while dressing.

"If it was a prophecy, I'm not convinced yet that you weren't just making the whole thing up."

"Come on Annabeth", I said. "What possible motive could she have for that?" Annabeth looked away and sighed. "You have no idea do you, Seaweed Brain" I didn't, but I was glad of getting Seaweed Brain again. It was better than Dogfish Breath.

"Let's take her to Chiron and Mr D and see what they have to say." I suggested. Annabeth said nothing, and sort of shrugged a sort of grudging acceptance at my request, and stomped of to the doorway.

"So what did the prophecy say?" Rachel said.

"You don't remember?"

She shook her wet head head. "Nope. I told you that. I don't remember anything."

"Neither do I." I said embarrassed. I really was embarrassed. My mind was obviously elsewhere when Rachel was reciting the prophecy.

"Well at least someone has their hormones in check and brain working, because I remember it all." Annabeth stated crossly and loudly from the cabin entrance. "Ok then Jackson, lead on to the big house and we'll see what Chiron has to say."


	2. Chapter 2: The Gods Need Us Again

**Chapter Two**

**The Gods Need Us, Again**

The three of us headed on up to the Big House, a place that had always impressed me just because of all the interesting things that could be found inside it. On the way out of my cabin, I noticed the Hunters of Artemis had occupied cabin eight, its silver walls glowing with faint radiance, a sure sign it was occupied. I thought this might be a good time to engage Annabeth in conversation without being shouted at too much.

"I see Thalia and the hunters are in the camp." I said confidently to Annabeth, Thinking this might make her happy to see her friend Thalia.

"Well, at least there is someone else at Camp Half-Blood who defiantly won't be running in your cabin naked." She snapped at me, referring to the hunters' vow of celibacy and having a dig at me at the same time.

I sighed silently, and look over to Rachel who shrugged apologetically. We wandered past the male god's cabins and as we walked past cabin eleven, I saw Connor and Travis Stoll just watching us walk by. I didn't like the grins on their faces. Annabeth ignored them completely and Rachel waved politely, but their eyes were on me, and when we had passed, I looked back, and they both made thrusting motions with their hips. I realised to my horror that they must have seen Rachel's entrance to my cabin, and I would now be the gossip of the whole camp. Annabeth wasn't going to like this at all.

We approached, the Big House, four stories of sky blue and white pre World War One, nineteenth century American architecture, as Annabeth repeatedly told me. She didn't tell me this time though, and she just walked straight on in, ignoring Argus, who was sat outside. He blinked a few pairs of eyes at me, but I just shrugged an apology and followed her and Rachel into the house.

We walked straight into a pinochle game, much to the annoyance of Mr D, who was redder than usual, and I wondered if Zeus had let him drink wine again.

"Annabeth Chase! Rachel Dare! Preston Janson! My day is complete!" Mr D loudly and sarcastically announced. I'd given up on trying getting him to say my name correctly. "What do we owe the pleasure of two of our most famous godlings and our new mist destroying human! A game of pinochle perhaps?"

"Now, now, Mr D" Chiron said, looking carefully at us. "They actually look like they have something to say. Do you have something to say?" He asked us. We did of course have something to say, and we recounted the story and the prophecy for Chiron and Mr D. At the end of which Mr D had fallen off his chair laughing, much to Annabeth's annoyance, but Chiron looked serious.

"It can't have been a prophecy could it, Chiron? Rachel isn't the Oracle." Annabeth  
said.

"I don't know child, what I do know is the Oracle of Delphi is in the attic of this house, but it she was damaged in the previous summer and can no longer move on her own."

At that point Mr D made a strange face, and vanished into thin air. "He does that." Chiron sighed dejectedly. "Annabeth my dear, we need a council meeting, could you go round up the head counsellors for a meeting please." Annabeth looked like she was going to refuse, but then got up and went without a word.

Something went through my mind. "Chiron, could Rachel be the new Oracle?"

"No no, not possible. To become the new Oracle of Delphi a transfer ritual must take place, and no successful transfer has happened for over 50 years, it seems the job is cursed."

"What about the gods needing us on a quest?" I said hopefully. "What I they really needed a half-blood quest quickly, could they have found another temporary person to talk through?"

"Nothing would surprise me with the Olympians Percy, The Oracle in the past was always a human like Rachel, who could see better than anyone else, but they must be really desperate to try something like that, Rachel could have been permanently injured, but I haven't heard of any major problems with Olympus, even Kronos has been quiet, and yes that worries me too."

Mr D reappeared in his chair. "We have a problem."

Nothing more was said until the counsellors arrived, Clarisse arrived first, followed by Michael Yew, son of Apollo, they looked like they had been arguing again. Thalia arrived next, and she smiled as I gave her a mock salute. Beckendorf and Silena walked in together, looking like a cute couple, followed by Pollux and Katie, who weren't a couple but were together quite often because they worked the strawberry fields together. The Stoll brothers came in next looking straight at me and Rachel, with looks of glee on their faces. I steeled myself with expectation of being embarrassed by these two troublemakers. Annabeth came in last, with Grover, which gave me a boost, as I had no idea he was at camp. He looked as confident and assured as I have ever seen him, and he had every right to be after his amazing performance at the Labyrinth and his meeting with Pan.

Chiron brought the meeting to a start. "Welcome counsellors, hunters of Artemis, mortals and satyrs" He said in greeting. "We have a Quest."

At this point the room erupted with excited chatter. Chiron had to call the meeting to order by stamping his hooves.

Travis put his hand up. "Is it true, sir, that Percy gets all his answers from naked redheads in his cabin?" Most of the campers laughed at this. Silena looked at me admiringly.

"Yes Travis I guess it is." Chiron said reluctantly. I put my head in my hands and Rachel went as red as her hair. I glanced at Annabeth who was fiddling with the scabbard of her dagger angrily.

"Rachel was used as a vessel of prophecy by the gods as an emergency, but was unlucky enough to be in the shower when the possession overcame her. A rather embarrassing time all round, for the three people involved." Chiron continued, as everyone had another chuckle. "But enough of idle gossip, a prophecy was given by the gods and must be heard, Annabeth?" She looked up at Chiron. "The prophecy please, Annabeth."

"Oh, yes sorry sir." Annabeth said, and then recounted the prophecy to the table.

Silence followed. Michael Yew was the first to speak up. "Those first lines, sir, they say three will be chosen, three will be asked, three of six will fail what is tasked, from this sir, it seems clear that six will go on the quest, but three will fail. Does that mean three of us will die?"

I wasn't surprised this was the first thing brought up, as it was the first thing that had occurred to me and it worried me a lot.

"Probably not, Michael, my experience with quests and prophecies leads me to think that the word fail more often than not means not completing the quest, not death and there are other factors here, that we will get to, that further my belief in that this is the case." Chiron stated confidently. "But you are correct with the six in the quest, that part is clear." Everybody looked more comfortable with this part explained by Chiron.

Annabeth was next. "The Oldest Tower? I've never come across a reference to that before." Everybody in the room knew Annabeth's knowledge of architecture and history was unsurpassed. "Nor would have I expected you to, as it is a closely guarded secret." Chiron said. "Mr D?"

Dionysus looked up, and looked like he wasn't paying attention at all. "What?"

"The Oldest Tower and secret door? You were going to explain them."

"I was?"

"Yes Mr D, you were, and now would be a good time." Chiron said, patiently.

"Oh very well then, the things I do for you ungrateful half-bloods!" Dionysus snapped. Then a change over came him and he looked more serious, more godlike even.

"When Olympus moved to the west, we had to decide on an entrance to the mortal world, and at first we chose the Washington Monument as it was the only thing suitable at the time. As time moved on, it was clear New York was the only place grand enough for Olympus to be, so we removed the Washington entrance and built it into a new building in New York, and in 1930 it was the tallest building in the world."

"The Chrysler Building!" Annabeth blurted out loudly.

"Yes, Annabel, you are quite correct."

"Annabeth."

"Whatever. Anyway, a much grander and taller building appeared the very next year-"

"The Empire State Building!"

"Do you want me to continue?"

"Yes sir! Sorry sir." Annabeth said, turning bright red.

"Children of Athena! Damned smart arses." Dionysus sighed. "We had to move there of course, and we most certainly did, only it was decided to keep the first door, as a secret back door, in the Oldest Tower which is of course, the Chrysler Building."

So we have to travel to Olympus via its back door in the Chrysler Building? I said.

"Yes Percy, you would seem to be correct." Chiron replied.

"Whats the realms of the mighty, then?" I continued. Mr D answered me. "We don't guard the back door, Paulie, so each Olympian created a realm that has to be overcome, to reach Olympus."

"That would be twelve realms in total that we must overcome." Thalia stated

"Thirteen actually, as Hestia has a realm too." Mr D replied. "You will need both strength and intelligence to pass the tests, and it has never been done before, so you've got no chance."

Thanks for the encouragement Mr D, I thought. Then a thought occurred to me.

"So why don't we go through the main entrance, you know, in the Empire State?"

"About time you figured that out, Peter" Mr D said snidely. "The doors have been blocked by a couple of Giants, they are causing problems."

"And the Gods can't handle a couple of Giants?" Clarisse scoffed.

"Mind your mouth war girl. The Giants are the sons of Gaia, the great mother goddess of the earth, and they once stacked mountain ranges on top of each other to reach Olympus in Greece, and they can only be killed by a combination of god and mortal, and since mortals can only enter Olympus through either the main or back entrance we have a problem. We need you to use the back door, to get to Olympus.

"Okay, what about the last lines of the prophecy?" I said. "The journey through will leave them shaken, future's lost, innocence taken." I quoted from the paper, where I had written it down this time."

"Who knows? Prophecies will be prophecies you must work it out for yourselves." Dionysus said, "Whatever it does mean though, you can bet it will be bad." He smiled and promptly vanished.


	3. Chapter 3: A Gift An A Warning

**Chapter Three**

**A Gift and A Warning**

"Well, there you go." Chiron said. "Percy, the prophecy came to you, you get to choose the team."

Connor interrupted, "Maybe the prophecy went to Percy because she fancies him!" Annabeth and Rachel both went red for different reasons. Everybody else cracked up with laughter.

"Enough, Connor!" Chiron snapped angrily, "Rachel was under the control of the gods, so I won't hear any more of that, a month of kitchen duty for you!" Connor sat back down, but still had a grin on his face, like the joke was worth the punishment.

"Percy, you can choose five companions for the quest."

Strength and intelligence, I thought.

"I choose Annabeth for her knowledge, intelligence and strategic ability."

No one looked surprised, but Annabeth didn't even acknowledge me.

"I choose Thalia for her power, leadership and hunting prowess"

She grinned, and winked at me, which was quite forward for an eternal maiden.

"I choose Beckendorf, for his strength, integrity and technical ability."

Beckendorf pumped his fist in celebration, bur Silena looked horrified.

"I choose Grover for his tracking and nature magic"

No one complained, not after the summers battle had turned on Grover's battle cry.

"I also choose my brother Tyson, for his loyalty and indestructibility."

There were a few grumbles at this, but mostly people remembered him from the summer's battle too.

"Good team, Percy. Rachel will have to travel to the Chrysler with you to find the entrance as she can see hidden things in the mist. Now all of you get some sleep, and we'll go over the details in the morning" Chiron said, dismissing us.

As we all filtered out of the big house, I tried to catch up with Annabeth, but she was too fast, and Beckendorf stopped to thank me.

"Cheers Percy, my first quest! I can't wait! Oh by the way, Tyson is in my basement building stuff, I'll send him over." He said before he ran off before I could reply.

"If one hair on his head gets hurt-" A voice said behind me, "-and I will make sure you fall in love with a frog"

"I'll do my best Silena-" I started to say, but she too rushed off. I believed she would do it too.

I then got a big slap on the back, which made me look around. "G-man!" I shouted, "I hope you don't mind coming on a quest!"

"Always with you Perce! Even if it is in tunnels! Just get me some empty cans and I'll be there. "See ya tomorrow" He shouted, as he ran off in Juniper's direction.

I turned to walk off to the cabin when I found the Stoll brothers either side of me.

"We saw her bare ass, Perce!"Travis said.

"You saw more Perce, tell us more!"Conner continued excitedly.

"What do you want to know?" I replied.

"Does she, you know, shave? Travis went on.

"What?" I said, unbelieving, "Well, no." I stuttered, without really thinking about it.

"Does the carpet match the drapes if you know what I mean?" Connor grinned

"Well I don't know what you mean."I said, really not knowing what they meant. "I don't think we should talk about this."

"Did she get any lezzer action on with Annabeth?" Travis wanted to know.

I stopped and turned to face both of them. "No, she most certainly did not, and if you ask her that she will cut you balls off with that dagger of hers. Conversation ended." I said as I stomped off to my cabin.

As I walked into my cabin, it started snowing and I could hear the oohs and aahs coming from the other cabins, but I didn't care, I just flopped on my bunk, thinking of Annabeth. I shut my eyes and imagined what it would be like if Annabeth walked in to my cabin like Rachel did and kisses me like she did in Hephaestus's forge. Just at that moment someone walked into my cabin, I opened my eyes and looked excitedly, but it was not Annabeth, it was Tyson, my huge one eyed, buck toothed half brother, who could not be any further away from what I was hoping. I turned over quickly on my bed to disguise my thoughts as Tyson ran in.

"Brother!" He shouted loudly, slapping me hard on the back. Too hard, breath whooshing from my lungs.

"Hi Tyson." I croaked, trying to get my breath back, "Good to see you, been playing with Beckendorf's toys again?"

"Charles has the biggest fires! Weapons! Armour! Look I made you fish armour!" Tyson held up some intricate celestial bronze items. I had a closer look at the armour, the design had fish-like scales for better movement and lighter weight. The armour covered the whole upper body, with neck and groin guards and gauntlets for the wrists of which he had attached my retractable shield.

"This is amazing, Tyson, what's this on the back?" A vertical scabbard attached to the back of the armour held a thin cylinder about two feet long that stuck out at the neck like a samurai sword.

"New weapon! Designed by Triton, Daddy's chief fighter! I have one too!"

I took the cylinder out of the scabbard, it was about an inch thick and covered with mother of pearl. It felt so right holding it, and I instinctively knew how it worked. I gave it a slight squeeze, and both ends shot outwards, one to a point and one to three. Tyson had made me an extendable trident.

"Good work bro!" I said, very proud of him, "You really are the best of the cyclopes!" Tyson gave be a big hug. "Thank you brother, can we show Annabeth now?"

I didn't know if Annabeth was talking to me yet, but I figured I had a better chance if Tyson was with me. "Okay Tyson, let's go see Annabeth."

It was getting dark out, and the snow had got heavier, so I put on my white ski jacket and bobble hat, and wandered out of my cabin with Tyson. I looked across to cabin six, only to see Annabeth step out and vanish. She must be using her invisibility cap, my logic told me. Why would she do that? My curiosity delicately inquired. Only one way to find out, I quickly decided. "Come on, Tyson, follow me."

I ran over to the Athena cabin, and instantly saw that the Wise Girl had made a misjudgement for once. I could follow her footprints in the snow.

"Hide and Seek!" Tyson proclaimed loudly

"Shush, Tyson, we mustn't let Annabeth hear us" I ordered quietly.

"We spy on Annabeth?"

"Yes."

"Okay!"

It was soon clear where she was headed as the footprints lead towards the amphitheater, and we took a slightly different route, as to cover our tracks a bit. As we got near the amphitheater and hid behind a statue, we saw Annabeth reappear near the statue of Athena, guarding the gates as a goddess of warfare and put her hand on the statues foot. I suddenly had the idea that I could use Tyson as a radar microphone, as he had amazing hearing and could reproduce voices exactly like he did on the Princess Andromeda.

"Tyson, what's she saying down there?"

Tyson tilted his head and started doing his amazing impression of Annabeth.

"Mother, you wish to speak with me before my quest?"

"Yes my daughter." Tyson continued, doing a different voice this time. Athena I assumed.

"Annabeth, my daughter you are not using your skills to their full potential"

"I – I don't understand."

"You have complete mastery of the strategic arena, you have a god given battle sight into how to win any battle with complete knowledge of tactics and warfare as long as the battle is just. You have begun to suspect your talents, but don't trust yourself to them. You must let your fear of failure go if you are to reach your full potential and complete this quest."

"I'll try mother."

"I have also bestowed on you a unique gift, which no other child of Athena has ever received, and I hope you will know when to use it. I will not tell of it here, but you will come to understand."

"Thank you mother, I'll beat this quest and get the doors of Olympus open again."

"Beware the realm of Aphrodite, It could be the making of you or more likely your undoing, because in its way it is the most deadly of all the realms."

"And stay away from the Poseidon boy."

"Well, I'm not talking to him at the moment."

"Well, you will have to soon."

"Why?"

"You see that statue of Deimos over there."

"The god of terror, yes I know the one."

"He's stood behind it listening to every word we say." Tyson replicated perfectly, sending a shiver down my spine.

Crap, c'mon Tyson, we have to run.


	4. Chapter 4: The Back Door

**Chapter Four**

**The Back Door**

I was expecting Annabeth to come charging after us, but she didn't, which relieved me, but I knew it would come to a head at some point soon. I sent Tyson back to the cabin, while I went to sit on the beach. The sea always calmed me down, and made me think clearer.

"Mind if I sit down?" Someone asked from behind me. I looked around to find a wiry man in is late fifties, who look like he could of just stepped off of a Gloucester fishing trawler. The weird thing was, I didn't know the man but felt completely comfortable in his presence.

"Sure, I you don't mind sitting in the snow." I said, "Percy Jackson." I announced, holding out my hand.

"Triton." He said shaking mine.

"You are a son of Poseidon too?" I said, knowing the answer.

"Yes, I am your half brother and herald of Poseidon, nice to finally meet you Percy Jackson, your father talks about you often."

"He does?" My heart swelled a bit.

"Yes, Percy, he is very proud of you, and he sent me here to speak to you."

My heart dropped a little. "He couldn't come himself?"

"Don't be angry, Percy, father is very busy protecting his realm from the Titan Oceanus, He could barely spare me." I nodded in acceptance, I knew Kronos and his Titans were causing trouble, but above the water, they had been very quiet, I knew nothing of the battles raging in the oceans.

"I have a quest coming up." I said, guessing what this was about.

"Yes, I know, Poseidon and Apollo initiated the prophecy, because Zeus didn't want to ask for mortals help. Olympus gets into more trouble because of Zeus's pride than for any other reason, and the other gods have to work around him." The news didn't surprise me in the slightest, so I just nodded.

"Poseidon, had me help Tyson forging new armour and weapons for you, and had me come here tonight to help you with your quest."

"The realms of the Olympians?" I suggested.

"Yes, Percy, it will be difficult to pass through them, but you have picked a good team, and you should manage it. Beware of the realm of Aphrodite though, it will cause problems."

"Athena said the same thing to Annabeth." I admitted.

"She would say that wouldn't she," Triton said not surprised in the slightest, "She doesn't like the sons of Poseidon." He continued, but explaining no further. "We gods are forbidden to tell the realms secrets, so I can tell no more on this matter, but I bestow on you a gift, that can call me if you need me, one time only." He handed me a twisted conch shell, about six inches around. "It may surprise you when you need to use it."

"Thank you sir, I will do my best." I said, turning Triton's gift in my hands.

"Poseidon expects nothing less." Triton announced, "But he already knows he will get it from you, Percy Jackson. Goodnight brother."

Triton stood up and walked straight into the sea.

I woke up early in the morning, and tried on my new armour. It was comfortable, warm and very light indeed and it even had a pocket for my sword in pen form. I tried the shield and it worked perfectly. I then reached behind my neck and grabbed drew my new weapon over my shoulder grabbed it in with both hands and extended it to its full six foot trident form in one smooth motion. "This is so cool!" I muttered to myself. I then noticed a small button with a grid shape imprinted on it, curious I turned towards the door and pressed it just as Will Solace an Apollo camper, appeared at my door. The trident recoiled, and Will vanished completely from my sight. I ran to the door in a panic, only to see that Will was okay, but struggling in a net twenty yards away. The trident had a net gun built in. Will didn't see at as cool though.

"Curse you, Percy Jackson! Get me out of this! Will screamed at me angrily.

I uncapped my pen, and felt the reassuring weight of my celestial bronze blade, Riptide, appear in my hand. "Stop struggling Will, and I'll cut you free."

The sword cut the net like it was candyfloss and Will scrambled out.

"Sorry about that Will, didn't see you coming."

"Wow you look cool!" Will blurted out.

I was stood there in my new armour holding a bronze sword in one hand and a huge trident in the other. "Thanks Will, what did you want anyway?"

"Chiron wants you and Tyson at the Big House to begin the quest."

I ran and got Tyson out of bed and we made our way to the Big House, picking up Beckendorf on the way.

"Hi Beckendorf!" I greeted him, "What's that?" I said, pointing to his waist.

"Tool belt." He explained, "A gift from my father. I can get any tool I need from this just by thinking about it"

"That's pretty cool!" I said, "You spoke to Hephaestus?"

"Yes, he spoke to me though a TV. He warned me about the realm of Aphrodite, although Silena can't imagine her mom doing anything deadly."

That was three gods now that had warned of Aphrodite's realm.

"C'mon, let's go see Chiron."

We met up with the others, and it was clear Annabeth was still ignoring me completely, Thalia looked as composed as normal, and Grover was itching to get going, with his rucksack of empty cans and his new reed pipes hanging from his neck. Chiron gave us all some Ambrosia and nectar and some golden drachmas to help us on our quest.

"Argus will drive you six, Rachael and the Hunters, Phoebe and Riordan to the Chrysler Building, where Rachel will find the entrance and the Hunters will protect her and bring her back to the camp. Any Questions?" Chiron asked.

"Do you know anything about Aphrodite's realm?" I enquired.

Chiron shivered which was something I had never seen him do. "I can't help you with that one."

"Good luck all of you!" Chiron said, dismissing us.

We all climbed into a minivan, Annabeth getting as far away from me as possible. I sat down next to Thalia, much to the annoyance of Phoebe and Riordan who seemed to want to protect their lieutenant from the influence of boys. Thalia made no sign that she cared. Argus climbed in and headed for Manhattan. The trip didn't take long, and no monsters attacked, for which I was grateful. We climbed out of the van right outside the Chrysler Building's huge pentagonal main entrance and entered through the beautiful silver art deco doors. Architecture was Annabeth's passion, and she was loving this. I was glad to see her in a better mood, and hoped that she would start talking to me soon.

"Nice leather jacket buddy!" A security guard said to me, not seeing my armour because of the mist, "What can I do for you guys? He said. Thalia walked up to him and clicked her fingers. "We work here okay? Leave us alone." She stated.

"Sorry to bother you guys, I had to check." The guard looked ashen.

"No problem mate, just doing your job." Beckendorf replied.

I really have to learn to manipulate the mist, I thought.

"Over here." Rachel pointed to an elevator.

"How do you know?" Annabeth said, not quite believing Rachel.

"Omega, the Greek letter O, for like Olympus, is on the doors of that elevator, any other questions?"

I couldn't see it, but Rachel penetrates the mist like nobody else. No one else had any questions and we got in the elevator

"Floor Twelve." Rachel said, pressing the correct button.

The doors opened, and a voice announced, "Floor twelve, the Olympus Corporation."

"Those Olympians and their sense of humour, huh!" Grover laughed.

Thalia handled the secretary, my manipulating the mist again, while Rachel had a look around. It didn't take her long. "Over here."

We followed her through the corridor until she stopped and pointed. "In there." She said, smiling.

"The women's bathroom?" You've gotta be joking." I stuttered. Thalia and Annabeth found this really funny. Beckendorf just looked at me and shrugged. "You've been to the underworld, the sea of monsters, Mouth Othrys and the Labyrinth and you're scared of a women's bathroom? Annabeth said, derisively. At least she spoke to me, I thought. I stared at her and walked right in.

Everybody followed. The bathroom was mercifully unoccupied, and Rachel soon found the omega sign. "The last stall on the right is the entrance."

Thalia hugged Rachel and her Hunters, and walked straight in. Beckendorf followed, then Grover, leaving me and Annabeth. "Ladies first." I said

"Not likely Seaweed Brain, I'm not leaving you with her."

Rachel rolled her eyes, and made me cringe by giving me a kiss on the cheek in front of Annabeth before she left. At least the hunters were not going to do that, they just left with Rachel without a word.

"You are unbelievable!" Annabeth snapped, and walked off into the entrance.

I sighed. Could it get much worse between us? I looked at myself in the mirror with a resigned look on my face and spoke to myself. "For the gods, Percy Jackson!" With that I followed the others into the secret door.


	5. Chapter 5: We Speak to an Avatar

**Chapter Five**

**We Speak To the Avatars of the Gods**

I stepped through the door only to find myself in the kitchen of an old fashion English style cottage. The kitchen table was covered with lots of delicious looking home cooked food, and there were things cooking on an old iron aga and over a roaring fire in the fireplace. Everybody, else looked totally confused, this was not what was expected. This was a place you could retire to in comfort, not a maze, or battleground that we were expecting. A door opened and a kindly looking woman walked through, she was wearing a white toga and a white shawl covered her barely visible brow hair.

"Good day to you heroes, welcome to my home and to my realm, for I, Hestia, goddess of the hearth and the home welcome you to the back door."

"Thank you Hestia," I said politely "I didn't think gods guarded the back way in to Olympus personally."

"We don't." She said, "I am an avatar of the gods, I am merely a facsimile of Hestia's personality, left here to guide you on your way, and you may certainly find other godly avatars on your journey."

"So there are no gods here at all?" Thalia asked.

"There are no Olympians here, child of Zeus, hunter of Artemis, just their realms forged from their personalities. Within these realms, you may encounter avatars, monsters, nymphs and even minor gods, but no Olympian will dwell here."

"So what order do the realms appear?" I enquired.

"There is no order, son of Poseidon, when you walk through that door, you could appear in the realm of Zeus or the realm of Dionysus, and you have no way of telling. But guess quickly because knowledge of the realm's godly patron will help you greatly in navigating the realms."

"So we just walk through that door?" Annabeth asked.

"Yes child of Athena, but before you do, I offer you all a gift to take with you on your quest."

She held out a clamshell, and opened it showing us the contents.

"Teleportation pearls?" I said, having used them to escape the underworld.

"Three pearls that will take you home to your families. It's all I can offer, even though there are six of you, and you will understand when the time comes when to use them." Thalia took them and placed them in her rucksack.

"I have stopped more heroes passing through the back door than any other god. Keep that in mind when you think my realm was pointless or easy. Please help yourself to food and drink before you go." Hestia said before walking out the exit door.

"Well she was nice." Grover said, enjoying some jam tarts, still in their foil casings.

I walked over to Annabeth and asked her, "Annabeth, which realms do you think will give us the most trouble?"

"Why are you asking me?" She said.

"Because you are the smartest person here, and you would have given this some thought, I wouldn't like to think you are gonna be uncooperative just because you don't like me much at the moment." I retorted."

"You're right on both counts, I have thought about it, and I don't like you much."

"Please, Annabeth." I pleaded. Her dislike of me was really beginning to get me down.

"Okay, then," She sat down in front of the fire and started to rationalise her thoughts. "Zeus, Poseidon, Athena, Artemis and Hephaestus are all represented here, which will give us an advantage in those realms." This made perfect sense, yet I hadn't thought of it.

"That leaves Demeter, god of agriculture, and Dionysus god of wine which surely our progress can be assisted by Grover and his nature magic."

Grover played a little tune on his reed pipes.

"Ares, Hermes and Apollo, should offer more generic challenges that between us we should be able to conquer." Annabeth continued and then paused.

"That leaves what?" Thalia asked.

"The two gods I can imagine giving us the most problems, Hera and Aphrodite. I have no idea what to expect from them." She finished.

No one else did either. We packed up some food and I led the way through the door into the first realm.

We left the house to find ourselves outside on a gloriously sunny day, too sunny in fact. A quick look up showed that the sun was far too big and far too orange, almost alien, yet we could still look directly at it. A yellow pathway led away from the house and disappeared into the distance.

"Follow the yellow brick road," I said, knowing it was a cheesy line, but I couldn't resist."

"Are you looking for your heart or your brain, fish boy?" Annabeth replied, referencing the same film as me.

"You just won't give up will you." I said to her, just glad she hadn't questioned my courage as well.

"Not yet, Toto, lead on" She said pointing to the pathway.

I scared off a couple of ravens when I walked through the gate, which stopped Annabeth dead in her tracks. "Ravens." She said, pointing at them disappearing into the distance.

"So what." Thalia replied. It seemed like her patience with Annabeth's friction with me was being sorely tested.

"Ravens and the sun would be in Apollo's realm. " I said beating Annabeth to it, much to her annoyance.

"He is also a patron of archery, poetry and music." Annabeth retorted.

"That's correct." A voice came from behind us.

A man in his early twenties, wearing a golden Elvis costume and Raybans, walked past us.

"I am the avatar of Apollo, welcome to my realm, and I'm not a bad bloke really so my realm ain't too bad compared to some. I hope you like archery and music, because it helps if you can hold a tune, get to the sun bridge and you will face a challenge." He then promptly disappeared in a blinding flash of light.

We continued following the road, and I dropped back to talk to Annabeth.

"What do you want now?" She said before I could speak.

"I just want to talk, that's all."

"I've got nothing to say."

"Please, Annabeth you're my best friend, I can't stand this anymore."

"Go and complain to Rachel then."

"There is nothing between me and Rachel, honest." I pleaded, and Annabeth stopped and looked at me.

"It didn't look like that in the bathroom, and you couldn't take your eyes of her in your cabin."

"She walked into my cabin starkers! What was I suppose to do! Ignore her?"

"You could have been more gentlemanly about it."

"I'm a teenage boy, Annabeth, I couldn't ignore a naked woman if I was dying of plague!"

"It turned you on did it?"

"Yes, but-" I tried to say Annabeth started to walk away.

"I would rather it had been you." I blurted out, and cringed as I said it.

Annabeth looked at me completely shocked, her mouth moving, but nothing coming out. She walked away shaking her head, and I smiled inwardly, because I somehow knew she cracked a smile even though I could only see the back of her head.

We both caught up with the others at a drawbridge that stood at the edge of a huge ravine. I looked in and the only thing I could see was ducks continuously flying through the ravine. Not living ducks but the wooden ducks people keep on their walls as decoration, and they were flying through at a mighty speed.

Beckendorf was looking at the bridge controls.

"The bridge isn't controlled from here, it's activated by remote signals, there's nothing I can do here."

Thalia had found a golden bow and quiver of arrows by the bridge.

"Wow a bow of Apollo!" She gushed.

"You have to shoot the ducks to activate the bridge." Annabeth said.

"How do you know that?" Thalia enquired.

"I just know. Part of my godly gift is that I can see solutions to puzzles, but I've never trusted it before. Annabeth admitted.

"Okay had anybody tried shooting ducks moving over a hundred miles an hour? I'm a hunter and I say it can't be done." Thalia said. "Even with this bow."

"Music!" Grover announced. "Apollo mentioned music." To which he started playing his pipes. The ducks slowed a little.

"Not enough Grover!" Thalia shouted.

At this point I got one of my crazy ideas. "Tyson a song please!" I said. "He can mimic anyone" I explained.

Tyson started with a pitch perfect Justin Bieber, and the ducks went even faster.

"Something different please Tyson." I shouted.

Tyson than came out with a perfect rendition of Come Together, by the Beatles. The ducks slowed hugely.

"Yes! Keep going Tyson! Grover can you accompany?" I ordered.

"Can I!" he shouted indignantly, and started to accompany Tyson perfectly on his pipes. The ducks slowed to a crawl.

"Thalia now!" I shouted. She didn't need to be told twice. She shot a duck with every arrow she fired, and every time the bridge lowered a little more, until we could cross.

We ran across the bridge and entered a shed on the other side. One down, Eleven more  
to go.


	6. Chapter 6: We Lose One in the Forges

**Chapter six**

**We Lose One in the Forges**

We were descending in an elevator, it looked rough and dirty like an industrial freight lift and there were no buttons on it or signs of where we going.

"Not bad so far." I suggested.

"That's only one twelfth of the way so far, and then we have to battle giants, with probably only three of us." Annabeth said bringing me and everybody else back down to earth.

Looking at the others, I noticed Beckendorf looking excited, fiddling with a pair of needle nosed pliers from his tool belt.

"What's up Charlie?" I enquired. He looked around the elevator and the back at me.

"Look at this place, can't you see? I can feel it in my core that the doors will open and we will be in one of my dad's forges."

Beckendorf's feeling was then confirmed by a drop down TV, on which the misshapen head and smouldering beard of Hephaestus appeared.

"This is the realm of Hephaestus. Prepare to die." The TV disappeared.

"Your dad's not as nice as Apollo." Grover said.

"He's all business." Beckendorf, confirmed. "If the idea of these realms was to stop the wrong people getting through, then dad would have put his all into the task. This could be difficult."

"Okay then." Thalia announced. "The realm of Hephaestus, Beckendorf, it's your realm so you take lead on this one." Beckendorf nodded.

"Annabeth has strategy, and we three have point." Pointing to me and Tyson. Grover, there is probably not much for you to do here in an underground forge, nature magic will be useless down here, so find somewhere safe and check the place out for anything we can use.

I nodded. It's what I would have done. I should have been annoyed at Thalia taking the lead on my quest, but I just seemed happy we were working as a team. I noticed the lift slowing down.

"Weapons at the ready!" I ordered. I uncapped Riptide and the others got their weapons ready and the doors opened.

Beckendorf was right, we were in a forge, and it looked like a cross between a giant factory floor, ancient blacksmiths and a Greek junkyard. We had no time to look around though as four bronze bulls were charging us from the other end of the hall. Grover ran off in a different direction looking for anything useful.

"Yay! More metal cows!" Tyson proclaimed excitedly.

"Colchis bulls." Annabeth said quickly. "We've seen them before at Half-Blood Hill." They breathe fire so Tyson should be okay and it takes a lot of fire to hurt Beckendorf, but you two stay behind your shields." She said pointing at me and Thalia. "Spread out and each of you try to lure a bull towards you. The bulls have a very bad ability to turn quickly so let them get close, then jump sideways. Inflicting damage while they pass would be the best strategy."

"Anything else? Beckendorf?" I asked. Beckendorf had got fireproof clothes, gloves and a welding helmet out of his tool belt, and a small rock hammer he always carries had transformed into a four foot bronze sledgehammer. "Their legs and eyes are their weak points, go for those first." he suggested, pulling down his mask as he spoke.

"You four battle the bulls, I have an idea." Annabeth said, running off towards a ladder, looking at something high up.

Tyson went first, sprinting at his top speed at the first bull. The bull snorted fire at him, but he just ran through it, extended his trident and slid under the bull, tripping it up in the process. The bull, running at full speed, went head over heels and landed on his back, snorting fire in all directions. Tyson calmly walked up to it and punched its face flat. "Bad cow!" He said. Meanwhile the other bulls were on us.

I opened my wrist shield, and withstood a fiery blast, and dived to the side, like Annabeth suggested, and cut the bulls two left legs of at the knees as it passed and it fell onto its side still bellowing flame. I circled around its back trying to get close, and then remembered my other weapon. I withdrew my trident from behind my neck and extended it to its full six foot length and threw it with all my might at the automaton's neck. The armoured neck of the bull did nothing to slow down the passage of the trident, and it buried itself deep in the creature's neck. With a shower of sparks, the bull stopped moving and froze completely. The light in its eyes went out. Two down, I thought to myself, looking around to see how the others were doing.

Beckendorf had finished off his bull, its head completely destroyed by his huge sledgehammer. His fireproof overalls and gloves were black, but otherwise he seemed okay. Thalia was having more trouble with her bull, as Annabeth's strategy wasn't working. The bull was scared off by Thalia's shield, Aegis. Its medusa's head invoked fear in all creatures and the bull recoiled when it neared the shield and wouldn't pass by. The only options Thalia had was fighting the bull head on or putting her shield away and getting burnt to death. I was about to run and help when a voice shouted out from high up. "Take a few steps back, Thalia!" It was Annabeth. Thalia did so and with an almighty crash, the bull vanished under a steam traction engine dropped from above. Annabeth had taken control of the forge's hoist system and used it to help us.

"Grover found it, but didn't know how to work it." Annabeth said happily of the hoist system.

"Nice one G-man, Wise Girl!" I said. Grover looked pleased with himself, Annabeth just rolled her eyes.

Beckendorf was amazed that the now, non-functioning bull didn't disappear. "They always vanished before just like monsters." Beckendorf said excitedly. He was all over the one I had stopped, as it was the least destroyed.

"Look at this!" He pulled my trident out of the bulls neck, and and a damaged mechanism came with it. "A control disk! I've always believed dad's automatons had a controller behind the neck"

"What use is that to us?" Thalia enquired

"Well two things really, one, it's a weak point in their design, which we can exploit, and two, if I can remove the control disk, I could reprogram automatons to fight for us in the future."

"Well you might just get your chance!" I shouted, while pointing to the roofline at the far end of the forge. Everybody turned around to witness a massive gout of flame moving towards us.

"Wow!" Beckendorf proclaimed. "A bronze dragon! It flies too!"

"Don't get too excited, it's flying in our direction!" I shouted nervously. "Annabeth?"

She did not hesitate. "Beckendorf, up the ladder and onto the hoist." He nodded in understanding.

"Thalia, Tyson, Percy, Grover, distract the dragon, get it on the ground in this vicinity, it's too low for it to fly here and stay away from its tail. Be loud and obvious, the dragon must not notice Beckendorf coming from above" We all nodded.

"I'll control the hoist system get Beckendorf onto its back and he can deactivate the control disk." She said confidently.

"Okay then, we know what we're doing, let's go!" I shouted, my sword raised.

Annabeth and Beckendorf ran up the ladder and we moved towards the oncoming dragon making all the noise we could manage. "Grover, get behind me, Tyson, charge that thing, get it to come over here."

Tyson ran at full speed towards the oncoming dragon waving his arms, shouting, "Hello nice fire lizard! Give me a hug!"

The dragon followed Tyson towards us, but wouldn't stay on the ground, the ceiling and hoist were quite low here and the dragon nearly wiped Beckendorf off his hoist chain. If we didn't do something soon, the whole plan might unravel.

I grabbed my trident and prayed to Poseidon. "I need you dad, the trident is a symbol of your power, so please don't let it fail here." I then threw it as hard as I could at the bronze dragon.

It flew over the back of the dragon, and I thought I had missed at first, but the dragon came crashing to the ground, roaring in anger. The trident had destroyed the wing anchor point on the dragons back and they came crashing off when the dragon hit the ground. It was now wingless.

We then surrounded it, me and Thalia with our shields and Tyson walking straight though gouts of flame coming from a mouth full of rotating drill-like teeth. Grover was distracting it with music, which even seemed to calm it down a bit. Then Beckendorf landed on its back and was amazed to find a comfortable seat, like it was meant to be ridden. He had the control disk out in seconds. The dragon froze. Beckendorf even looked a bit upset.

"What a team!" I hi-fived the others. "That must be the exit over there."

On the way over we passed a design room and Beckendorf could hardly contain his excitement. "Look at these designs!" He shouted ecstatically ". Automatons! Weapons! Even a flying Greek Trireme!"

"We can't stay here, Charlie, we are on a quest" I said, truly disappointed for him. "Help us get the exit open."

"Okay, Percy, let me have a look."

He looked at the controls and frowned."I have good news and bad news." He said. Good news is-"

He pressed his palm on the control panel and the exit opened.

"And the bad news?" I said.

"Well, more bad for you than for me. The control panel is designed in such a way that only a son of Hephaestus can use it, with a palm print." He took his hand off and the exit slammed shut. I went over and tried it myself. Nothing.

"I'm going to have to let you out and stay here, it's the only way." He said. I frowned.

"We knew this was going to happen, Percy." Thalia said before I could disagree with Beckendorf.

"Three will fail." Annabeth quoted looking resigned.

I couldn't think of a way around the door problem. "Okay, Beckendorf, you did great, sorry you can't come any further."

"Sorry? I'm in hog heaven here, I'm only sorry that the team is down to five."

"Thalia, you better give him a pearl to get home." I said sadly. She retrieved her rucksack and extracted a pearl and handed it to Beckendorf. She then hugged him. We all did.

"Don't worry about me, I'm going to learn all I can and try to get dad to help me get home with this dragon, it could be useful. Good luck with the quest!" He slammed his palm down onto the control panel.

The exit opened and the five of us failed to see the nameplate above the door as we walked out of Bunker 9.


	7. Chapter 7: No Prozac in the Rockies

**Chapter Seven**

**There is no Prozac in the Rockies**

It went from steaming hot in Hephaestus' realm to a little chilly in the blink of an eye. We walked straight into what looked like the Canadian Rockies. There was a mountain lake in front of us glistening with small ripples in the fading light. The mountains themselves rose up all around, glorious and dominating and were blanketed on their lower regions by a beautiful evergreen forest. The golden sun was setting between the peaks, through a thin layer of clouds casting a red-gold glow across the lake. It was absolutely enchanting. We all stood and admired for what seemed an eternity.

Grover seemed the happiest of us all. "Look at this!" he gushed. "This is what Pan would have done with the world, beautiful and unspoilt!" He sat down and started playing sad lament to Pan on his reed pipes. Animals ran before us, completely unafraid. I saw Naiads frolicking under water stopping to listen, and Dryads peeking out from the tree line, crying. I stood there entranced by the music and nature, and knew from the bottom of my heart that a half-blood could be truly happy here. I plucked up some courage and took Annabeth's hand. She withdrew it. I looked down and breathed out. I didn't know I was even holding my breath, and as Annabeth walked away, I could not imagine being any more distraught than I was now. For the first time in my life, I wanted to cry from emotional pain, from someone I was only now beginning to realise that I loved, rejecting me. I didn't know what to do, so I sat down next to Grover.

"That was beautiful, man." I said sincerely, wiping a tear from my eye.

"Goat." Grover smiled

"That was beautiful, goat." I smiled back. Grover could always cheer me up.

"Thanks, Percy. I'm so at peace here, I could stay here forever."

"Don't forget we have a quest to complete, where do you think we go from here?"

"In the cabin with the others?" He asked me, like I was stupid.

I turned around and noticed a log cabin behind us. "Isn't that the way we arrived?"

Grover didn't answer and just shrugged. I got up to check out the cabin. I opened the door and instead of a return journey to Hephaestus' realm, I entered a cosy little room with four bunks a table and a fireplace, complete with roaring fire. Thalia and Annabeth had claimed a bunk each and Tyson had found some s'mores and was roasting them on the fire.

"What realm do you think this is?" I asked.

"Nor sure." Thalia answered. "Demeter would be my best guess."

"Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, not nature or mountains" I answered.

Thalia just shrugged. I wandered back outside, to look for clues. It was nearly dark outside, and Grover was still playing his pipes, more cheerfully now. Animals bounded past. Raccoons, beavers, possums, skunks, peacocks, even moose and caribou wandered past to Grover's music..

"Grover? Peacocks are not natural to Canada or Montana or wherever we are supposed to be."

Grover looked at me "You're quite correct of course, the animal and plant life here suggest northern Rocky Mountains, I'll ask a Dryad to be sure, but you are right, peacocks are from India, with introduced populations in England, Japan and Florida, I believe. They shouldn't be here."

I knew why they were here. I went back into the cabin motioning Grover to join me.

"We're in the realm of Hera, Queen of Heaven."

"Well done, Perseus Jackson, you are quite correct." Hera said from the cabin door.

"Was it the peacocks? They always give me away."

"Yes, my lady." I stuttered. "You are Hera's avatar?"

"No, child, I am Hera. No copies will be made of me."

"What are you doing here then?" Thalia said crossly.

"I think you better stay quiet, and stop reminding me of my husband's infidelities." Hera said in a dangerous sounding voice.

"Why no avatar?" I asked.

"My fellow gods don't really understand the way of mortals like I do, so they have these wonderful realms to prevent them passing through to Olympus, but sometimes they need you to get through. I also like to keep an eye on the back door. None of the others do.

"No puzzles or battles here then?" I said with hope.

"No, not here. I want you to get to Olympus, the Giants Otus and Ephialtes are causing too much trouble. Rest here, restock food and water and keep going."

She started to walk out the door. "Watch out for the realm of Aphrodite, she's a nasty vindictive little witch." She said before vanishing into nothing.

We all settled down, ate some food and had do decide on the sleeping arrangements. There were only four beds. Tyson was already snoring away on one, and I knew an earthquake couldn't wake him up. Grover wasn't going to sleep in a strange forest, and he didn't want to tempt himself with the Dryads. He was very loyal to Juniper. He went to sleep instantly, Satyrs needing more sleep than humans.

"Maybe we should take turns." I suggested.

"We don't know when we are going to be able to sleep again, we must all sleep well tonight." Thalia said sensibly.

"Are you to gonna share then?" I asked

"I can't." Thalia said. "I have the blessing of Artemis and am an eternal maiden. I must sleep alone."

"You and me then, I guess." I said to Annabeth, with a jolt of excitement.

"No chance Codface." She snapped without thinking.

"Fine!" I threw my hands up. "I'll sleep in the bloody lake!" With that I stormed out of the cabin.

I sat down by the lake and put my feet in the water. I huge surge of strength flooded through me, and suddenly my mind was clearer. The more I thought about the Annabeth situation, the more I realised something more must be going on. She can't be my best friend and then suddenly hate me over that one incident with Rachel, which wasn't even my doing. To my surprise, Annabeth came out of the cabin.

"I'm sorry, Seaweed Brain, you can share by bunk as long as you keep your wandering hands to yourself. She said, not very sincerely, I thought.

"Why do you hate me so much?" I asked, feeling braver.

"I don't hate you. I just feel you betrayed me."

"What? That Rachel thing had nothing to do with me, and I can't control what she does." I stated, glumly.

"There's more than that. Rachel left me a note the next morning stating, in no uncertain terms, that you and her love each other."

"Wha-" I started to say.

"There's more." She interrupted. "She also said that her entrance to your cabin was not under the control of the gods, and she had already received the prophecy. She was naked for you, Jackson, and she had to think quick when she saw me. She did a good job."

"That's not true!" I stuttered unbelieving.

"I believe it, after you stopped spying on me, my mum told me the same thing."

I was really confused now. "None of this is true. Me and Rachel have nothing together, never have had, never will. Your mom can't be right."

"Are you calling my mother, the Goddess Athena a liar?"

"I'm saying she has an agenda. She doesn't like the sons of Poseidon."

"I don't know if I can believe you." She said sadly. "I don't know how I can believe you."

"How can I prove myself to you? How on earth can I prove my innocence?" I pleaded with tears in my eyes.

"I don't know Percy Jackson, but-" She paused, almost crying herself. "-I do hope you can."

She turned around and walked back to the cabin. "Don't forget Seaweed Brain, keep your hands to yourself."

I was stunned to the core. Someone was working against me. Who could it be? Rachel? Athena? I didn't know. I walked back to the cabin to find everyone asleep apart from Annabeth sat there in just her t-shirt and panties. "You can have the cold wall side." She said.

She watched me remove my armour and get undressed to my t-shirt and boxers. I was trying desperately not to look at her, she looked damn sexy in her undergarments and I didn't want it to show visibly. I turned away from her just in case, and climbed into the bunk. The wall was indeed cold. Annabeth climbed in afterward and settled down to sleep. I could feel her ass and legs touching mine. It was agonising for me. I listened to her breathing as she fell asleep and started gently snoring. I turned over and slowly hugged her from behind, wrapping my body around hers. She made a small moan, but didn't wake up, and I relaxed to go to sleep, happier than I had felt in a long time.

I dreamed I was in a luxurious hotel room, with a four poster bed and chandeliers. The lighting was set at a dim level with slow music playing in the backround.

"Hello, Perseus Jackson."

I turned around to witness the most breathtaking thing I had ever seen in my life, and was ever likely to see.

"Aphrodite." I choked out, barely able to talk, I had met her earlier in the year.

She was wearing nothing at all. The most beautiful God, the personification of beauty was stood before me naked. I had seen Rachel naked, but she was nothing in comparison. Aphrodite's skin was flawless, her breasts fuller and her curves perfect. Her face was perfectly made up with a sultry, 'I want you' expression on her face. I was all I could do now to stay upright on my shaking legs. She walked seductively over to me, and placed her arms over my shoulders. I could feel her breasts pushing into my chest. My heartbeat quickened even more.

"I can't wait to get you to my realm, Perseus Jackson, the things I have planned for you are beyond your imagination."

She kissed my ear, and thrust her hand down my boxers and held on to me tightly and it felt like my body exploded. I woke up sweating profusely.

I pulled away from Annabeth quickly, lest she feel me pushing against her. I grabbed my groin and it was sticky. Aphrodite had given me a wet dream. I turned over, and tried to sleep, wondering if I would dream again. I didn't.

Annabeth woke me up, getting out of bed and I looked at her.

"Morning, Seaweed Brain, you behaved yourself." She smiled. I smiled back. She had no idea.

I'm going for a bath further up the lake, and would appreciate it if you stayed here.

"Sure." I said. With absolutely no intention of doing so.

After a minute I looked at the others still asleep, grabbed Annabeth's Yankees cap and followed her out invisible. I could see her a hundred yards away or so, swimming in the water. I ran straight into the water and pushed the currents to take me towards her. I could just about make out her naked form in the distance when a group of Naiads stopped me from going any further.

"No, Perseus Jackson, this is not behaviour befitting the son of the sea god, we cannot let you pass."

I instantly felt ashamed. It was this sort of thing that got me into trouble in the first place.

"You're quite right." I said guiltily. "I shall leave now"

I climbed out of the lake, and didn't look in Annabeth's direction again.

Annabeth returned to the cabin, drying her hair, and everyone else was up and ready to go.

"I'll just pack my things and I'll be ready to go." Annabeth said.

As she started packing her rucksack, she grabbed her baseball cap and stopped, turning the cap over in her hands. I could see that it was wet. Why did it not stay dry like my normal clothes?

She looked at me, angrily.

"You've been spying on me AGAIN!" She raged.

"No, no, I-"

"I don't want to hear it, Jackson. It seems boys can't be trusted." She interrupted.

"Amen, sister." Said Thalia, agreeing completely. Grover and Tyson Just looked embarrassed.

Annabeth stormed out the back door of the cabin to the next realm. Followed by Thalia and Tyson.

"You okay?" Grover enquired.

"I just hope there is something to kill in the next realm." I said angrily, before following Grover through the door.


	8. Chapter 8: It Cannot Be Done!

**Chapter Eight**

**It Cannot be Done**

It was night time when we arrived at the new realm, walking out the front door of a magnificent looking structure. I nearly fell down some steps when looking back at its mammoth, ornate shape. The gardens on front of us were neatly manicured, with trimmed hedge topiary. Annabeth screamed in delight. "This is Castle Howard in England, a Baroque structure built by Sir John Vanbrugh between 1699 and 1712 and is one of the greatest stately houses. I've always wanted to see it!" she gushed enthusiastically. While I am constantly amazed by Annabeth's knowledge on architecture, she did seem like she wanted to see every building in the world sometimes. I couldn't deny the building was amazing though, and at least she had forgotten about her argument with me. Thalia seemed even more excited than Annabeth.

"Look at the moon!" She shouted.

The moon was full, and huge. Ten times the size it should have been, shining very brightly indeed. The stars too were brighter, clearer and more numerous than I'd ever seen. It was like we were stood on an asteroid in deep space, and it was quite a breathtaking sight. With all the light in the sky it was no wonder everything was quite visible, even thought it was night time.

"It's time for a hunt!" Thalia enthused.

"How do you know that?" I enquired.

"Look at the moon! Have you any doubt that this is the realm of Artemis? Goddess of the Moon and of the Hunt?"

I looked up at the moon again and noticed something in the centre of it, and it was getting bigger.

"What the hell is that?" I pointed at the object approaching us.

We all looked as it approached. It was a silver chariot pulled by four silver horses. Three figures were in the chariot.

"Lady Artemis!" Thalia got down on one knee. Grover looked excited, he loved Artemis.

Artemis looked how I remembered her, as a twelve year old girl, but it was one of the others that capture my attention.

"That's Zoe Nightshade." I said. "And Phoebe as well."

"It looks like Artemis hasn't updated her avatars." Annabeth said.

The chariot landed nearby and pulled up near us. Artemis stepped out.

"Welcome to my realm, heroes, and a special welcome to a hunter maiden." She nodded at Thalia.

"I hope the boys are giving you no trouble, Thalia Grace." Artemis said, looking at me, Tyson and Grover.

"No lady, Artemis, they have been most heroic in our quest."

"Then I shall allow them to hunt in my realm"

"We have a hunt?" Thalia asked excitedly.

"Yes, hunter. There is a creature just north of the lake over there." She pointed east.

"Capture it, and bring it to the Temple of the Four Winds, bur be aware that the beast is sacred to me, and the chase may not be as straightforward as you may think. You will need all your wits about you to progress from this realm"

With that she climbed back on the chariot and shot off into the distance.

"Avatars just aren't the same." Thalia sighed.

"So what's the Temple of the Four Winds? Grover asked Annabeth.

"It's a stone domed Palladian folly, past the tree line about five hundred yards over there." She pointed east. How the hell did she know this stuff, I wondered.

"Well let's go find this beast." Thalia announced.

We headed east across the gardens until we reached the wood beyond. Annabeth saw it first, drinking from the lake.

"We are so in trouble." She said.

"Why is that? It looks like a deer. Just a deer, quite a big one though." I said to her. Although in the moonlight it looked like it had metallic antlers and hooves.

"Just a deer, Starfish Brain, that's the Ceryneian Hind!"

I just looked on, nonplussed, as did the others.

"Don't you guys know anything?" Annabeth said, unbelieving. We shook our heads guiltily.

"The Ceryneian Hind is a stag with Bronze hooves and golden antlers. It was Hercules' third labor to capture this beast alive and bring it alive to king Eurystheus. It can move faster than an arrow in flight and Hercules spent a year chasing it around the old world and eventually captures it in the land of the Hyperboreans, and the old tales don't even say how he captured it! See our problem now?" Annabeth explained, a bit condescendingly.

"So what's our strategy?" I asked.

"Are you not listening? There is no strategy, not with what we have got. We cannot win."

"Then we must find something to alter your strategy equation." I replied.

"What do you mean?"

"There is no winning strategy with what we have got, your Athenian blood tells you this is so?

"Yes. Without question." She said looking at me wonderingly.

"So we look around and find a new factor to alter the equation that will give us a winning strategy." I summed up. "Artemis said it wouldn't be straightforward."

Annabeth's eyes lit up, you could almost see her mentally analysing new strategic possibilities with the addition of new data. "Good idea. Let's go have a look around the grounds." She said to me approvingly.

We wondered back to the stately home. We looked everywhere. Inside the castle, the gardens, the orchard, the dairies, the greenhouses and the stables. Nothing. Then all of a sudden, Grover got excited.

"There are caged animals over here!"

He ran over and started letting rabbits out of hutches and letting goats and llamas out of their nightime prisons. In the end cage was a dog, a friendly looking brown Labrador. There was a name badge on the cage. Laelaps.

Grover opened the cage and Laelaps jumped out and started licking his face.

"What have we got here?" Annabeth said catching up.

"My new friend Laelaps." Grover said, getting another face lick.

Annabeth froze. "Laelaps, did you say?" Laelaps jumped over and started licking Annabeth.

"This is it, Grover, this is our winning strategy."

I didn't know how a Labrador could help us, but Annabeth seemed confident, and called us all into a meeting. "This is Laelaps." She said. "He was a gift from Zeus to Europa, and he never failed to catch what he was hunting." She said smiling, watching the smiles on our faces at that revelation.

"What's his history?" Thalia asked as she petted him.

"He was passed down through heirs, and even Artemis gifted him to Procris, whose husband set him on the Teumessian Fox, a fox that could never be caught. The paradox of a dog that always caught its prey, chasing a fox that couldn't be caught, sent ripples of disturbance through Olympus, until Zeus turned them both to stone and cast them into the stars." Annabeth recounted.

"Wow." Grover exclaimed. "Poor thing, maybe we can take him with us."

"Maybe." I said. "How do we get him to catch a deer five times his size?"

"I'll ask him to." Grover said, "I speak dog quite well."

"We don't have to catch the Hind, just deliver him to the Temple of the Four Winds. Laelaps can round him up like a sheep in a field." Annabeth claimed confidently.

We took Laelaps to the lake and Grover explained the hunt to him. He understood perfectly. He trotted stealthily over to the Hind as to not startle it. The Hind noticed him but didn't bolt. It stuck its head down and charged at Laelaps. I held my breath, worried for our new friend. Laelaps gave an almighty growl, which stopped the Hind in its tracks, and it turned tail and ran off. Laelaps expertly chased it, herding it in the right direction, and not letting it get away. They shot passed us and we chased after them, and when we got to the end of the tree line, the Temple came into view. It had steps and classically pillared arches on all four sides, and a magnificent dome on top. Laelaps continued to guide the Hind to the Temple until it ran up the steps of the south side and vanished. Artemis appeared in its place.

"Congratulations my heroes, that was a successful hunt." Artemis pronounced. "The doorway is open." She pointed inside the Temple. She bent down and picked some moonlace from the steps and smiled as she dissapated into a moonbeam.

"That was the best exit yet!" Tyson announced. "Moon lady turns to moonlight!

Grover let out a contented sigh. "Can we take Laelaps with us?

"Only one way to find out." I said. "C'mon, boy!"

We ran up the steps and into the Temple, burst out of another door only to find ourselves including Laelaps on an ancient sailing ship at sea.

"This has got to be the realm of Poseidon." Thalia said instantly.

"I don't think so." I said confidently

"Why? We are at sea are we not?"

"Yes, but you haven't looked behind you."

Thalia spun around, and proceeded to look up. The mountain nearby has been carved into a giant throne, upon which a bearded being sat holding a giant thunderbolt. You could feel the power radiating from it, and there was no doubt we had just entered the realm of the King of The Gods. Zeus.


	9. Chapter 9: We Live in a Movie

**Chapter Nine**

**We live in a Movie**

"It's the Argo!" Annabeth said, looking a bit green. Sailing did not agree with her.

"The Argo? Jason's ship? " I asked.

"What? You actually know some history? I can't believe it!" She said snidely.

"Well. I've seen the movie." I admitted. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"This ship was built with the help of my mom and consecrated to your dad." She said looking around. I smiled at the thought of collaboration between Athena and Poseidon, and looked around for the others.

Tyson was looking off the back excitedly, must be looking for the Rainbow the Hippocampi, I thought smiling to myself. Thalia and Grover were searching the boat for any dangers or clues as to our quest. Laelaps had curled up at the front of the boat and was sleeping.

"There's nothing here." Thalia proclaimed. "Grover found a hammock, and I just found some stores of food and water and other boaty stuff."

"Boaty stuff?" I laughed.

"It's annoying you know, we get to my father's realm and its boat stuff. Your area of expertise, not mine." She said frustrated. "I have no idea what we even have to do to get through the realm."

"Zeus isn't going to bother with avatars or advice, we're going to have to guess, and he left us one big clue." Annabeth said confidently.

"Well don't just stand there, Wise Girl, enlighten us." I said fed up of tippy toeing around her all the time.

"The ship, Seaweed Brain." She said, staring daggers at me.

I knew the Argo from the movie, Jason and the Argonauts, it was one of my favourite films.

"I told, you Annabeth, I only know the Argo from the film. I have no idea what its real history was."

"Its real history _was_ in the movie." Annabeth stated boldly "One of the movies creators, Ray Harryhausen, was a demigod son of Athena. He knew the real story and made a true to life tale."

"This might not be too bad then, we just have to redo the trip of the Argo from the film." I said confidently.

"Are you joking!" she said amazed. "We only have to find the route from Iolcos to Colchis, fight Talos, Harpies, The Hydra and warrior skeletons, and steal a golden fleece we've already stolen, eacape from the King of Colchis, with no crew, no help from the gods, no idea of our final destination and making no mention of the Clashing Rocks!"

"Sounds like one of our normal quests to me." I smiled. Annabeth threw an apple at my head. I ducked just in time.

"Hear me out on this one, just look at our first quest, do you remember?" I said.

"Of course I remember"

"We only had to find a route from Camp Half-Blood to the Underworld, fight Harpies, Medusa, Echidna, A Chimera, Procrustes, Cerberus and Ares the War God, find Zeus' master bolt, which had already been stolen, deal with Hades, escape the Lotus Hotel and the Underworld, just three young children trying to stop a war between gods, making no mention of the fact that we were betrayed from the beginning and Zeus nearly vaporised me on the spot. See what I mean yet?

Annabeth looked annoyed, but I could see she was beginning to understand.

"This quest will be easier, we have a better team, we are more experienced, and because of the movie we know what's going to happen, so what problems do we have strategy girl?"

She counted them off.

"One, navigation."

"Got it sorted, am the son of the sea god, remember?" She nodded.

"Two, Talos."

"He was on the Bronze Isle, and the Argo only stopped to explore, and they broke the rules by stealing. We don't even need to stop there."

"Three, Harpies."

"This is a two in one here, we don't need to rescue Phineas to find our way, we know where we are going, and therefore we don't need to capture the Harpies who were tormenting him."

"Four, The Clashing Rocks, they used Phineas' Amulet in the film, to prevent the ship being crushed by falling rocks, by calling Poseidon, I think."

"Leave that one to me. I've got a good idea, and it wasn't Poseidon." Annabeth didn't like that but accepted it.

"Five, The Hydra."

"No idea, Annabeth, I'll leave that one for you and Thalia. In fact I have no plans for after reaching Colchis. I can't do all the work." I smirked.

"Okay, we'll take that part as it comes." She said, not liking it.

It was a beautiful day, and the ship responded wonderfully to my commands, and the sea seemed to offer few threats. We all relaxed. "Zeus can't have expected a son of Poseidon to be coming through his realm, the big three were barred from having children when this was built." I said. "The running of the ship and navigation would have been a big challenge without me here."

"Don't let your head get to big, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth replied. She had removed her armour, and was lounging on the deck in just t-shirt and shorts. She looked magnificent and although she was no longer taller than me, she was still taller than average, and her legs were a sight to behold. I was transixed.

"What you looking at?" She said, pulling me out of my trance.

"Nothing." I said, looking away, embarrassed by being caught looking, and annoyed by bottling my response.

"Good. I don't know why you'd what to look at me, I haven't got red hair." She said, dismissing my presence.

I sighed, and walked up to Laelaps, and rubbed his ear. "At least you like me buddy." Laelaps gave me a small woof in response. It cheered me up a little.

We sailed on, up a narrow straight and passed close the Bronze Isle. We all stood transfixed at we saw Talos' massive bronze body kneeling on his pedestal. His sword alone must have been fifty feet long, and just being this close to him was nerve racking. I was glad we didn't have to leave the ship. I looked ahead to the inlet at the end of the straight, it was the same inlet as in the movie that Talos straddled and picked up this very ship. I willed the ship to go faster. I looked around at Talos as we came to the closed point of approach, and to my horror, Talos looked straight at me.

"It looks like Zeus isn't going to make it easy as we first thought" I said quietly

"That's not fair!" Annabeth shouted. "We stole nothing!"

I willed the ship and currents to take as fast as possible, if we can get passed the inlet before Talos, then we could escape into the open sea.

"Can't you make this thing go faster!" Thalia shouted at me.

"I'm doing the best I can Thalia! You're welcome to help out! Some wind perhaps?"

"I-I don't know." She stammered.

"You are the daughter of Zeus, you are standing in his realm, try something!" I shouted back.

Thalia looked at me, and then walked to the back of the boat. She closed her eyes and muttered something under her breath. Her arms lifted out to her sides and suddenly clapped together with what sounded like a sonic boom. The sail of the ship billowed as the wind increased tenfold, and the Argo shot towards the inlet. I could see it was going to be close, as Talos, all three hundred feet of him approached the inlet with giant strides. Tyson even started blowing at the sails.

"We're not going to make it!" I shouted, as Talos Planted his feet on either side of the inlet and raised his sword. He towered over us.

"Thalia! Lightning! He's an automaton, he's vulnerable to lightning!" Annabeth screamed.

Thalia lifted her right arm above her head and summoned the power of Zeus as an almighty bolt of lightning struck Talos' raised sword and he froze just long enough for us to pass through his legs. Talos turned around, and brought his sword down with immense power and missed us by a few feet. The power of the sword strike was enough to cause a mini tsunami, which threatened to roll the ship over. I took control of the wave, and had the Argo surf away from Talos to the safety of open water. I let the wave diminish and looked back. Talos was already returning to his pedestal. I sighed in relief.

Grover appeared from below. "Perrrcy! Can't you sail a bit more smoothly! I was thrown all over the place!" He moaned. We all looked at him in disbelief.

"What?" He said as he looked at the expression on our faces. "Did I miss something?"

Cheered by our passing of Talos without injury or damage, I set a course for the Clashing Rocks, missing out the stop for Phineas altogether.

"Why the Clashing Rocks?" Thalia asked.

"It's a choice between the Clashing Rocks and the Sea of Monsters, and I don't really want to go back to the Sea of Monsters." I explained. "It's not even possible to get past Scylla and Charybdis without serious damage or loss of life, and then there's the islands of Circe, Polyphemus, the Sirens and Laestrygonians to worry about. No it's the Clashing Rocks."

We got a good six hours of sleep before we reached the towering cliffs which signalled the entrance to the Clashing Rocks. Everyone seemed nervous apart from me, but I knew something they didn't. I knew a way through. Rocks and boulders started crumbling down the cliffs as we reached the half way point. Thalia and Annabeth looked at me with expectation rather than fear, which I took as an encouraging sign of their faith in me. I wouldn't let them down.

I grabbed my rucksack and withdrew the twisted conch shell. The sea was getting pretty rough, but I set the ship to sail right down the middle of the cliffs. I lifted the shell to my lips and blew gently, and the call echoed through the canyon. Triton said I would be surprised when I had to use it, and he wasn't wrong. The only thing I'd known about Triton was that he was the god who held the rocks back for the original Argo, and now here I was using him for exactly the same thing. Tyson ran to the front of the boat. "Brother!" He shouted. I wonder how he knew? The water bubbled and frothed and Thalia and Annabeth gasped as the huge form of Triton burst forth, with his beard covered in seaweed and shells covering his shoulders. He placed his arms across the chasm and left us enough space to sail through.

"That's my brother." I said proudly.

"I see the family resemblance." Annabeth shot back

We watched the cliffs collapse as Triton disappeared under the waves.

"Didn't I tell you you'd be surprised?" A voice said from the front of the ship.

We all turned in surprise. "Triton." I said bowing. He was sat in his fisherman's gear.

"I'm afraid Percy, that things on the outside have taken a turn for the worse for our father. Oceanus is attacking his kingdom directly, and I'm afraid I need to take brother Tyson back to help with our Armies, under orders from Poseidon himself."

I was actually quite happy with the news. I knew three would fail the quest, and I was glad it wasn't because of death or injury. I went over and hugged Tyson. "Kick underwater ass brother" I said to him slapping him on the back. The others came over to hug him too.

"Can I ride Rainbow back?" He enquired. 'Hippocampi.' I mouthed at Triton.

"Er, no Tyson, we have quicker ways than that." Triton said, pointing the sea. "Jump."

"Bye Percy! Grover! Thalia! Annabeth! Good luck with Giant smashing!" Tyson shouted and with that he and Triton disappeared under the waves.

We were down to four now.

We sailed on to Colchis, only to find the island deserted.

"At least we don't have to worry about the King of Colchis." Annabeth stated.

It was not the people of Colchis I was worried about. We sailed around the island until we found it, an ornately carved cave entrance, and in front of it was what I was worried about. A Sleeping Hydra.

Annabeth and I only escaped a Hydra before because of Tyson and Clarisse and her confederate warship. We had neither here.

"That's got to be the exit to the realm, so how do we beat a Hydra?" I asked Annabeth.

"I've been thinking about this since we lost Tyson. The only way to kill a Lernaean Hydra is by cutting of all six of its heads and burning the wounds to stop them re-growing. The safest way would be for you to use your trident to pin a head to the floor and Thalia can then blast the trident with lightning, burning the head off at the neck."

"How do I get my Trident back?" I asked.

"Laelaps, of course. He never fails." She said, rubbing the dog's ears. I would have never thought of that.

We moored the Argo, and covered our mouths with cloth dipped in nectar as a Hydra's breath is poisonous, and wasted no time at all attacking the Hydra, while it was still sleeping. I ran up to it and planted my trident into the largest of its heads, pinning it to the floor. I ran a quick as I could as the hydra awoke. Thalia immediately summoned the thunder to the trident and the Hydra's head exploded in a poisonous fireball. The plan worked perfectly, the neck of the Hydra was cauterised and didn't regrow.

"Laelaps the Trident!" Grover shouted. The dog jumped straight through the tangle of necks and heads and grabbed the trident in his teeth, and brought it back, dodging every Hydra bite aimed at him. "Good doggie". Grover said passing the trident back to me. The Hydra started moving towards us.

"We need to slow it down!" Annabeth shouted.

"Grover! Reed pipes, get the plants to tangle its legs!" I said confidently.

"Thalia! We need Aegis, scare that thing!" She nodded, releasing her shield.

"Annabeth! Get invisible and distract it!" I ordered

We worked perfectly as a team. We disabled the Hydra with vines around its legs, and a few nets from my trident. Annabeth got in a few crippling blows with her knife, while we continued with the plan of disabling heads and burning them with lightning. After a while the floor was bubbling and smoking with venomous hydra blood and there was only one head left. Thalia was exhausted.

"I don't thing I can do any more lightning." She said breathing hard.

"Don't worry about it." I said as I uncapped Riptide, unfurled my shield and charged at the monster. I jumped over its head, blocking the spitting venom with my shield, landed on its back and decapitated it with one powerful stroke. I quickly pushed the bloody stump down into the venomous pool and cauterised the Hydra's last neck in its own blood.

Annabeth took off her cap and appeared by the cave entrance. "Quick people in the cave, we've not got much time."

I looked around, not understanding, and saw a bony hand appear from the ground.

"C'mon, Percy!" she shouted. "It's the Hydra's teeth! Remember the film!

Hydra's teeth were planted by the King, turned into skeleton warriors! I ran to the cave, jumping over a few half emerged skeletons, and we ran down the tunnel with the ominous sound of clicking bones behind us. There was a door at the end of the tunnel, and I gave a quick glance back before entering. There were hundreds of skeletons, armed and moving fast down the tunnel. I slammed the door behind me, blocking the out. I turned around breathing hard.

"Are we in a shopping mall?"


	10. Chapter 10: A New Use For a Rubber Ring

**Chapter Ten**

**A New Use For A Rubber Ring**

I looked around the realm in utter disbelief. Thalia, Grover and Annabeth seemed as shocked as we were by the sheer normalness of the surroundings.

"It is a shopping mall!"

"Do you think we could get enchiladas here?" Grover said excitedly. Where's Laelaps?

"Well, it looks shut to me so probably not." I replied smiling. Grover loved enchiladas. "Laelaps has to be around here somewhere."

We walked through the mall slowly, checking for dangers or clues or whatever, because it was so confusing. We walked past normal shops like The Gap, Banana Republic and Fossil. Grover looked at the Jellybean shop with some longing. I could see the girls liked this more than I did, I hated shopping. I turned a corner and caught Annabeth looking in the window of Victoria's Secret, and smiled to myself, imagining her wearing some of the underwear on display. She turned around and caught me smiling, and promptly turned a shade of red, and walked of quickly after Thalia. They had some superstores here too, I noticed, when looking at the signposts, a Target, a Saks, a JC Penney and a Fresh & Easy supermarket. Walking around in a bit of a daze, I caught up with the others in the food court, where they were sat down outside a Taco Bell, Grover's choice I suspected.

"Pity its shut, Grover!" I laughed. He looked miserable.

"So what do you think?" Thalia asked me.

"I think-"

I was interrupted by a shutter lifting behind us. I jumped up along with Thalia and Annabeth and grabbed Riptide. It was the Taco bell, and a figure walked out with a tray of enchiladas and Diet Cokes.

"Refreshments anyone? The figure said smiling. He was wearing a UPS uniform and had his constantly chirping phone in a holster on his belt.

"Hermes!" I said. "You scared the hell out of us!"

"It's not my job to make it easy for you, in fact after I leave, your lives are going to turn into nightmares." He said smiling. "Ask your questions." We looked at each other.

"Where's the exit?" I asked first.

"Tradesman's entrance in Fresh & Easy." He said straight away.

"It's not going to be that easy though is it?" Annabeth enquired with a resigned expression on her face.

"No, of course not." Hermes said. "The door is locked."

"I guess we can't break through it?" I asked.

"Nope."

"We need a key?"

"A key code."

"Do you have the key code?"

Hermes grinned. "It was stolen."

"Stolen? Stolen by whom?" Annabeth chimed in.

"Kobaloi." We all looked at Annabeth for an explanation. She didn't look happy.

"The Kobalos are mischievous little thief sprites." We looked at Annabeth for further explanation."

"Just think of Gollum with a sense of wicked humor and light fingers, and you might be getting close!" She snapped.

"Ah like Gremlins!" I said, understanding.

"As good a name as any." She said. "We are going to have a nightmare catching them." She sighed.

"So we have to catch a Gremlin with a key code?" I ask Hermes.

"Four 'Gremlins' actually and then you have to put the four parts of the key code together. Escape from realm. Easy! I've also taken Laelaps from you, as it would make this far too easy!"

Hermes, lifted up his phone, listened for a second. He looked at us in turn.

"I've got a delivery to make, good luck and watch your backs and your pockets, the Kobaloi are not individually dangerous, but they can work together very well, and havoc is the only thing that happens when they are around, but try not to kill them, two more will appear in their place."

With that advice he wandered into the Motorola outlet store and disappeared.

"Who stole the enchiladas?" Grover shouted, sounding very annoyed indeed.

"And my rucksack!" Thalia shouted, and then pointed at Annabeth. "Your knife is gone!"

Annabeth looked at her arm in dismay, just about having time to note the loss of her bronze knife, when she was struck in the face with the largest peanut butter and cream pie I have ever seen, sending her flying over the back of her chair, legs in the air.

I dived to the floor laughing (I couldn't help it!), as a rain of the finest bakery products hit the food court. I was hit by custard donuts, banoffe pies and a monster of a butterscotch pavlova. High pitched laughter echoed throughout the mall. I had a feeling we were going to be hearing a lot of that particular sound.

"We have to find cover!" I shouted, watching in amazement as Grover snapped a chocolate éclair out of the air with one big satyr chomp. Annabeth still couldn't see anything with a face full of cream.

"Over there!" Thalia shouted. "Hardware store!" We ran as hard as we could, I had to stop twice to help Grover, as the usually sure hoofed satyr had a major problem with the combination of custard and stone tiling. We bust our way into the store, and sat on the floor, checking ourselves out. Apart from all our rucksacks and Annabeth's knife, they had also taken Grover's reed pipes and my trident.

"Those little bastards!" Annabeth choked, coughing out the last of the pie. She took off her armour to remove the large amounts of cream and pastry that had penetrated the inside. Mine and Thalia's armour was better fitting and had successfully kept the cakes out. Grover was coved in chocolate, but seemed to enjoy picking it off for something to eat.

"Right, we've gotta get our stuff back." I said taking charge. "Annabeth what do know about these things?" Annabeth looked a bit nervous. "Kobaloi will horde their treasure like magpies, and their base will almost certainly be in the coldest place they can find, they don't like the heat, or even room temperature. I guess the freezer section of the supermarket."

"Anything else? They are quite hard to see."

"They are magical creatures and can move almost invisibly from one place to another until they are caught somehow, and they lose their ability for stealth."

"Anything we should know on luring them? What attracts them? Thalia asked.

"I-I don't know." Annabeth stammered. I wasn't sure she was telling the whole truth, but I let it slide for now. I had a look around, and grabbed some umbrellas, goggles and hard hats and passed them around. I had to put a couple of holes in Grover's hat with Riptide for his horns to fit.

"Okay, let's go to the supermarket."

"Bastards! They've taken my bloody armour! Jesus, my boots as well! How the hell did I not notice them taking my boots!" Annabeth screamed. She was just left with her ripped jeans and dirty orange t-shirt. I looked around to see what else they had taken, and has quite glad to see my boots still on my feet. Grover had nothing left to steal, and Thalia had lost her bow and arrows and was seething, like Annabeth.

"Okay people don't relax for a second, and keep your eyes peeled, these guys are good."

"I think we should split up." Annabeth said.

"Explain." I replied.

"If we are alone, one, we will have split the Kobaloi up, and they won't be able to team up as much, and two, we can focus better on our environment if we are alone and not distracted by each other, we could have a better chance at catching them in the act."

"Okay good idea, we'll head towards the supermarket in different directions, there are four ways to reach it, and so we will take one each. Thalia, Grover take the left route, I'll take the right with Annabeth, and we'll meet up again outside the supermarket"

Thalia and Grover nodded, and headed off towards Sears, while Annabeth and I headed in the other direction. I could hardly hear Annabeth in her bare feet. I could hear cackling though. It seemed to be coming from all around. Then I noticed a feature in the centre of the mall. I smiled to myself.

"I've got an idea to catch a Kobalos, Annabeth." I explained it to her. She nodded. "I'll take the route towards Saks, you curve round by JC Penney and meet me on the other side."

"Good Luck, Seaweed Brain." She smiled, and ran off.

I ran straight for the main feature in the middle of the mall, a huge fountain with tacky Disney characters spewing forth water and small change glinting from the bottom that people had thrown in for good luck.

I dived right in and felt the power of Poseidon surge through me. Lying on the floor of the fountain, I could feel everything around me in hyper detail, the vibrations through the floor, and the sound waves through air, I could detect the position of the Kobalos hunting me, zipping from one doorway to another at amazing speeds. It was carrying my trident. When it got close enough I fired a jet of water from the fountain so powerful it pinned the creature up against a window. Stepping out of the fountain, I kept the creature pinned and walked up to it. It was about three foot tall, with grey skin and big black eyes. It looked at me with hatred and fear and proceeded to shout expletives at me, it really was the most unsavoury little character. I retrieved my trident, backed up and fired a net at it, entrapping it completely, and with a swift smack with the flat side of Riptide, I knocked it cold. It dropped a piece of the key code, as small bronze wheel with a number on the side. I retrieved it and went to find Annabeth.

I walked round the shops looking for Annabeth only to see the last thing I was expecting.

Annabeth was looking towards the supermarket and she hadn't seen me, but could see her. Far more of her than I have ever seen before. I breathed in hard, as I realise I was looking at her naked behind. It was the finest ass I had ever seen, and I stood to admire for a few moments, knowing full well this scene was going to play on my mind for years to come.

"Annabeth?"

"PERCY!" she jumped turning around. She was completely naked apart from a large rubber ring preserving her modesty from the front, which she was cling on to for dear life. She turned a deep shade of red.

"Nice ass!"

"Shut the fuck up, Seaweed Boy, the bastards nicked all my clothes!"

"Why are they picking on you?" I said, surprised at her profanity.

"They-" She faltered.

"They What?"

"They like blonds okay! Happy now?" I was happy, not only had I seen Annabeth's wonderful ass, but it gave me an idea. "We'll use you as bait to catch them." I said.

"Find me some clothes!" She screamed at me.

Thalia appeared at that moment, and laughed like a drain.

"You can shut up too!" She snarled.

"We have to get to the fountain, I can sense their presence when I am in the water, you can distract them Annabeth with your um- beauty, Thalia can block their exit with Aegis and we can hit them with the net gun."

We hurry up then before they nick my bloody ring, and you go first, I'm not having you stare at my ass again. We hurried back to the fountain, and I noticed the unconscious Kobalos was still there. I jumped into the fountain and awareness pumped through me. Thalia! They are coming from the food court direction, all three of them, hide in that doorway!" I pointed.

"Annabeth, face that way and be ready for them."

"You'll be staring at my ass again!"

"I've already seen it, Annabeth!" I said, but she was right I would be staring at it again.

She walked up the corridor, and I got another magnificent view.

"You okay back there!" She snapped.

"Never been better, Wise Girl!"

"Here they come, down the left hand side."

They hesitated, suspecting something unusual was going on.

"Annabeth, they've stopped."

"I can see them now!" she said "Ugly buggers!"

"I don't think it's going to work." I whispered.

"I'll work." Annabeth said as she dropped her rubber ring.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Annabeth Chase standing in the middle of a shopping mall, stark naked taunting monsters. She held her hands out. "Come to aunty Annabeth." And they did.

Thalia! Now!

I jumped out of the fountain, and Thalia came out of a doorway and activated her shield. The Kobaloi panicked at the sight of the medusa carved on it and ran towards Annabeth and me. It was the best target shooting I have ever had, as I fired nets from my trident either side of Annabeth's ass, and captured the nasty thieving little gremlins. I looked up in victory and noticed I could see the swell of Annabeth's breasts in the mirrored ceiling. I went a bit dizzy as blood relocated itself around my body.

Annabeth picked up her ring. "Now find me some bloody clothes!"

"You look gorgeous from the front, Annabeth!" Thalia teased.

"Shut up."

"You look gorgeous from the behind too!" I chipped in. I wasn't lying.

"Shut up!"

"That ring suites you, Annabeth" Thalia continued, somehow with a straight face.

"Look, I'm warning you!"

"Compliments your skin!" I added

"Arrrg! I hate you two!" she shouted. "Get me in there, now!" Pointing at a shop.

I smashed open the door to the Gap and sighed as I took my last look at Annabeth's behind as she ran in to the store.

Thalia and I went and collected the key codes from the trapped Kobaloi, and tied them all up so they couldn't harm us again. Grover, appeared pushing a shopping trolley. "Look what I found!"

Grover had found our stuff in the supermarket. It seemed the little thieves didn't like the smell of goat. We explained what he missed, and he bleated with laughter.

"I wish I hadn't missed that!"

Annabeth finally appeared looking quite stylish, apart from the peanut butter in her hair, and was overjoyed that Grover had recovered her stuff.

She looked at me and Thalia, looking as serious as I had ever seen her. "I don't want to hear another thing about what just happened."

"Okay gremlin magnet." I said

"Okay phantom mall flasher." Thalia said, trying not to burst out with laughter.

"She turned a deep shade of red and stormed off to the supermarket. We followed her at a discrete distance, not really wanting to antagonise her any further. Grover had packed all our stuff and added new provisions, so we could make our way to the exit. We passed through the supermarket, which was fully lit and just seemed a bit strange with no people shopping. The exit was where Hermes said it was and I was just a little bit sad at leaving this realm, but I would always have my memories of it which I knew I would cherish forever.


	11. Chapter 11: Friend's of the Earth

**Chapter Eleven**

**Friend's of the Earth**

Hermes had returned Laelaps to us and he jumped up at us in excitement, as we passed into the new realm. We exited a barn in what seemed like Midwest America. It was a hot late summer's day, and we were surrounded with golden fields as far as the eye could see.

"Nebraska? Oklahoma?" I asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Iowa." Annabeth said confidently. "Shelby County."

"How the hell do you know that?" I asked incredulously.

"You see that car over there?" She pointed.

"No. I don't." straining to see what she was looking at

"Over there! The Blue Ford F150, with the blown tyre and the missing wing mirror next to the rusting GMC Yukon."

I could just about make out a blue glint, so could Thalia and Grover.

"What about it?" I said, assuming she was winding us up.

"I read the state and county off the plates." She announced like it was the most normal thing ever.

Thalia snorted, "You can't read that from here, I don't believe you."

Annabeth looked surprised. "If you don't believe me go and check."

We all walked up the lane, and it took us a good ten minutes to get to the trucks, about 700 yards I figured, only to find out everything Annabeth said was true.

"That's amazing Annabeth, your eyesight is phenomenal" I gushed.

"I just assumed everybody could see like I could." She said, taken aback.

There was a rickety old one storey house by the trucks, and we walked around it to check it out, and sitting on the porch behind a screen door was a middle aged women with straw woven into her hair. I had seen her before at the winter solstice. Demeter.

"Demigods!" She said, without preamble. "Before you say anything, yes this is the realm of Demeter. Zeus made me do it, and I don't care about you or this realm or Zeus. I might have put some traps in this realm, I can't really remember and don't really care, the exit is in a barn over that way (she pointed), just get out of here and don't trample too may crops." She promptly disappeared into the house.

"Well that was short and sweet!" Thalia said, checking out our route.

"Well, what can you see with those lovely grey eyes of yours?" I asked Annabeth, meaning it as a compliment, but actually just making it sound sarcastic. I cringed inwardly.

"I can see an annoying git, who smells of rotting seaweed." She sniped, without even looking at me.

"I mean, what can you see along our route?" I sighed.

"I know what you meant, Seaweed Brain! It's just cornfields and wheat fields and a barn about three miles away." She snapped at me, and walked off in that direction. Thalia and Grover just shrugged at me, looking embarrassed. I shrugged back, and we followed Annabeth.

It was a beautiful walk through the fields and we kept pretty much to ourselves. Annabeth checked out the route for problems, Thalia spent most of the time throwing a stick for Laelaps. She even threw one onto a tree, and the brown dog just climbed the tree in a second and had the stick back before we could even be amazed at his climbing ability. He never failed, it seems. Grover was checking out the nature, which he liked apart from its artificialness. I could see the plants growing faster and wilder when he played his reed pipes.

My thoughts kept turning towards Annabeth Chase. What was going on? What did I feel for her? I was all so confusing! I didn't have the courage to say the things I wanted to say to her, not with her current attitude towards me, and what was going on with that? Why did Rachel do the things she did? Why did Athena tell her own daughter lies? It was frustrating, not being able to explain these things. Did Annabeth have any feelings for me? I hoped so, she seems jealous of other women, but I could see little affection from her recently. Was she getting dreams too? Is she being manipulated? I couldn't answer these questions, and I couldn't prove to Annabeth of my innocence with Rachel. The more I thought about the situation, the more disturbed and depressed I got.

"We're here." Annabeth announced, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Is it this barn?" Thalia enquired?

"No. It's just a barn. It's full of bales of hay and that's it."

"A place to sleep then?" Grover asked. I could see the satyr was pooped.

"As good as any, let's rest." I said before anyone could come up with another idea.

It was a warm night. I tried to speak to Annabeth, but she didn't seem interested in talking to me. I gave up and found a space higher up on some bales where I could watch her. Grover, Laelaps and Thalia had already dozed off, and Annabeth had removed her armour and jeans and settled down to sleep. I was wide awake, thought s coursing through my mind. Why is this back door so complicated? How did Giants gain entrance to Olympus? Was anyone working against us? Or with us? I sighed, not finding any answers and climbed down and sat near Annabeth. Just sitting near her made me feel happy. The night went on and no sleep came for me.

The moonlight filtered through the entrance, and I looked at Annabeth as she was lit up in the low light. I gently wiped her grey lock of hair out of her eyes. She made a moaning noise and I quickly withdrew my hand and sat back. I could see she had sweat on her forehead, and she was fidgeting around. She's dreaming, I thought to myself. She started breathing heavier, and made little whimpers. A nightmare? I thought to myself. Shall I wake her up? I decided, not to, I kept on watching. She started moaning, and I looked across at the others, but they were flat out. Her breathing got heavier, and one of her hands grasped a breast, she was shaking, I noticed. She threw her head back and gave another moan, now grasping her breast hard, like it was trying to escape. Her other hand moved down between her legs, and her hips started shaking uncontrollably. Her face and neck went bright red and a glistening sheen of sweat now coated her. I had never seen this happen before and I was beginning to realise that maybe Aphrodite was speaking to Annabeth too. Her hips rose into the air, and she jerked upright and her eyes fluttered open. She was gasping.

"You okay Annabeth? I asked.

"P-Percy!" she sputtered removing her hand from between her legs quickly, still breathing heavily.

"You were having a nightmare." I told her, lying through my teeth.

"Yes, yes, a nightmare!" She said not looking at me.

"You are covered in sweat! Was it a bad one?"

"Why do you care about what I dream?"

"Why wouldn't I care? I care about you Annabeth?" I pleaded.

"Did you say that to Rachel too?" She snapped.

I lost it completely, I'd had enough of this.

"No, I most certainly did not, and even if I did, what's it to you? We weren't going out! You probably only kissed me in the Labyrinth because you thought I was going to die!" I shouted, waking the others up. "I have been to hell and back with you Annabeth, we're a team, and I went nuts trying to rescue you from Atlas, and now all I'm repaid with is that you can't believe a word I say, so you believe what you believe and let's try and finish this quest in a professional manner." I stormed off.

I heard Thalia say to herself, "Thank god for the blessing of Artemis!" And for once, I agreed with her.

Annabeth didn't come after me, and I didn't expect her to, she was too proud. I went to sleep on the other side of the barn, and slept a contented and uninterrupted sleep.

I woke up the next morning to find the others already awake and waiting for me.

"Are we going to get out of this realm or not." I announced.

Grover smiled. "I like this realm! No monsters!"

"Nice to have a break, but we have a quest to complete. Annabeth?"

"What?" She said sullenly. I ignored her tone.

"What can you see in the distance?"

"There's a juniper tree about a three miles away and I can just make out a huge barn about a mile past that, through some cornfields." She said flatly.

"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go." I said and walked off.

Grover fell in step with me. He looked disturbed. "Something's not quite right here, Percy."

"Whassup, G-man?"

"I'm not sure, I've got a feeling of corrupted nature, a sense of something out of place. I seriously want to get out of this place." He admitted.

I looked around and saw no threats, but I trusted Grover completely and we stopped to wait for the girls, and we updated them with Grover's opinion.

Thalia spoke up. "I agree with you Percy, Grover has been blessed by the nature god himself, and if he feels something is wrong, then we should listen and make plans to get out of here as quick as possible.

"Annabeth?" I asked

"Yes, yes, whatever you say." She said distractedly, not looking at anyone.

"Okay, let's get a move on."

As we closed in on the Juniper tree, Grover got more and more agitated and started muttering, "It can't be true, it can't be true." I looked at him, and really started to worry.

"G-man, you're scaring me, what's wrong?" I asked him.

"The tree, Percy! Can't you see it?"

I looked at the tree, it was a twisted and bent juniper tree, now only fifty yards in front of us, and I felt some sort of recognition.

"Have we seen this tree before?" I was sure that I had.

"Yes. It was by Zeus's Fist." Grover looked white.

"The entrance to the labyrinth- oh god!" The shock hit me as I realised what I was seeing.

"Yes, Percy this is Juniper's Tree."

Juniper was Grover's Dryad girlfriend, a woodland nymph who's life-force was tied to her tree. We broke into a run. I could just make out a small elfin figure sitting by the tree.

"JUNIPER!" Grover screamed.

"GROVER! Thank the Gods!" Juniper squealed as she ran in to his arms.

"What in the name of Zeus are you doing here?" Grover cried.

"I don't know, Grover, I was sleepy, it's the middle of winter, I shut my eyes for a few days of rest when I found myself here, alone!" she cried, her eyes bloodshot green with chlorophyll. Grover wiped away her tears. "Well we're here now and we'll sort this out, somehow." I already had an idea.

Laelaps wandered up to Juniper and gave her a sniff.

"Don't let that animal piss on my tree, Grover." Juniper said sternly.

"Laelaps is well trained, Juniper." I said, smiling

Thalia and Annabeth caught up, and were amazed with who they found. They both gave Juniper a hug.

"Thalia! We need a pearl for Juniper." I said, "A Dryad can't come on a quest, and we can't leave her here. Tyson, didn't use his so we have a spare.

"Percy, we are being manipulated." Annabeth said.

"No shit, you think?" I snapped back. "Anyone you know?"

Annabeth looked away and stayed quiet. Thalia retrieved the two remaining pearls and gave them to Grover.

"Just one, Thalia." Grover said. Thalia handed over one pearl.

"You're not coming with me?" Juniper said, alarmed.

"I'm on a quest, Juniper, I can't just abandon it." Grover told her, looking stricken.

"Please! Grover Please! I'm scared!"

Grover whispered to me, "Get to the barn, I'll meet you there." I nodded, and motioned the girls and Laelaps to join me. It was a ten minute walk, and the barn loomed over us. It had an omega symbol on the door.

"This must be it." Thalia said, pointing at the symbol. I looked back and noticed the tree was gone, transported home by the pearl, and Grover was fifty yards back.

Suddenly, Annabeth screamed.

"Annabeth?" I said. Looking at was bothering her.

A stalk of corn had wrapped itself around her leg, and she cut it quickly with her knife. Another did the same and she cut it again.

"Get to the barn! Quick!"

I uncapped Riptide and Thalia opened Aegis, and we slashed at the stalks attacking us. I helped free Annabeth, and we got to the barn entrance, when I saw Grover in serious trouble. The stalks had his goat legs wrapped up and his chest, where his reed pipes hung. I was about to go to his aid when Annabeth stopped me.

"No Percy." She said calmly!"

"He's my best friend!" I screamed, "I've got to help!"

"Not this way, Percy, you won't come back, trust me." She looked at me. "There's another way.

I was panicked, I looked at her and she mouthed the words, "Trust me, please."

I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, Annabeth, I trust you, what do we do?"

"Thalia the pearl!" Annabeth said, with some urgency.

Thalia gave her the pearl. Annabeth bent over to Laelaps, and gave him the pearl to carry in his mouth. "Laelaps, get this to Grover!"

Laelaps immediately ran through the field, dodging, jumping and moving like a snake through the grass, it was an amazing spectacle. Laelaps never fails. He got to Grover, who was mostly tied up, and deposited the pearl in his free hand. Grover looked at us, and nodded, the sorrow in his eyes was almost too much for me. He grabbed Laelaps and crushed the pearl with his hand, and the both vanished in a sphere of light.

"Bye, G-man." I whispered sadly.

We rushed into the barn, and slammed the door. We were down to three, like the prophecy said, I had no idea what was coming next, and I knew without doubt that Annabeth was correct. We were being manipulated.


	12. Chapter 12: Gods of the Arena

**Chapter Twelve**

**Gods of the Arena**

I barely had anytime to mourn the loss of Grover. The three of us walked into a small circular light pattern with dark all around us, and an invisible field of some sort prevented us from leaving it.

"Welcome to the arena, demigods!" A familiar voice boomed from the darkness.

I looked at Annabeth and Thalia and mouthed one word. "Ares."

"You have entered the realm of the God of War, you have done well to reach this far my young demigods, but you may go no further, without testing your skills."

"Show yourself Ares!" I shouted. To my surprise, he did.

Ares walked into the light, a huge figure with short black hair and a gruesomely scarred face. He had the same leather jacket on which I had seen him wear on the quest for the master bolt, and his huge sword with a skull pommel hung at his side. His eyes were obscured by black wraparound sunglasses.

"If it isn't young Pond Scum, Geek Girl and the little Virgin Tree Witch." He sneered. "This is going to be more fun than I ever imagined."

"We're not scared of you, Ares!" I said, with more confidence than I felt.

"No? Well you're not fighting me." He lifted his sunglasses and stepped out of the light, leaving just the explosions of power in his eyes visible to us. It was a horrifying sight.

"Welcome to the finest show on Earth!" Ares shouted, but not to us, it seemed.

"For one night only, I, Ares am proud to announce an evening of the best gladiatorial combat bouts in modern Olympic history!" Cheers erupted from all around us. I could see what was coming.

"To the death!" Ares announced loudly. "To the death! To the death" The crowd chanted back.

I looked at Thalia and Annabeth, they looked grim, but they nodded bravely in my direction. I couldn't see anything outside the spotlight, but I got the impression we were surrounded. I dropped my rucksack and uncapped Riptide and activated my shield.

"In the blue corner, weighing in at a grand total of three hundred and seventy eight pounds, from Camp Half-Blood, Demigods!"

Boos and jeers erupted from the blackness.

"In the red corner, weighing in at an incalculable amount of tons, from the depths of the Tartarus, The Monsters! Cheers rang out around us.

"Letttttttt's get ready to Rumbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal!" The announcer shouted. The lights came on.

We were inside a modern arena, surrounded with what must have been twenty thousand screaming people, monsters, nymphs, dead soldiers and everything else by the looks of it.

"Where are we Annabeth?" I asked with some urgency.

"O2 Arena in the Millennium Dome, London." She said.

"How do you know this stuff?" I enquired.

"It says it on the roof." She pointed.

"What do you know about it?" Thalia asked.

"The roof above is covered with another dome roof, so you won't be able to summon lightning from the sky." Annabeth said. Thalia didn't look too bothered. "I can generate my own lightning if necessary."

"Percy, the River Thames runs right past this structure, you might be able to use it."

I nodded, I could sense the river from here, but wasn't quite sure how to make it work for me. My thoughts were then interrupted by spotlights on the huge door at the end of the arena. Music blared out of the speakers and the crowd started clapping and stomping to Eye of the Tiger. The doors opened and two Laestrygonians walked out to a hero's welcome.

"Kill them quick!" Annabeth said urgently. Thalia and I didn't hesitate. We both sprinted at the monsters and threw our weapons, Thalia, her spear and me, my trident.

"Round one! Demigods versus Antiphates and Olyphates of the Laesty-" The announcement was interrupted by both Laestrygonians disintegrating. The crowd whet silent.

"Round one to the demigods!" We retrieved our weapons to the sound of a single person clapping until they were shushed. The music blared up again. We looked to see what was coming this time. The door opened and a flock of deadly looking birds came flying towards us.

"Thalia! Stymphalian Birds! Sonic Boom!" Annabeth shouted.

Thalia nodded and got down on one knee, took a deep breath, outstretched her arms and clapped her flat palms together with an almighty boom. The wave she created was both sonic and physical, and it knocked the birds unconscious then blasted them into the crowd at high speed.

"Round two-" The announcement was stopped again. "Oh. Round two to the demigods." There were a few more claps this time.

The next monster out was a giant crab at least eight foot across.

"Round three! Demigods versus Karkinos!"

"Percy, the crab will have an internal water reservoir to be able live out of the sea!" Annabeth advised. I sensed the seawater inside the crab's shell and forced it to explode, taking the crab with it.

"Round three to the demigods, can we have a bit more battling please?"

I looked up to find the scoreboard above the arena, was keeping track. Demigods 3 Monsters 0.

"Round four! Demigods versus Hyperborean warriors of Greenland!

Three huge Hyperborean ice monsters, at least twenty foot high entered the arena with huge ice clubs bigger than each of us.

"Still got control of that seawater, Percy? Annabeth said. I nodded and smiled, showing Annabeth I knew exactly what to do with it. I had extracted the seawater from the crab and had kept it as a reserve weapon, and as the Hyperboreans closed in I covered each of their heads with a bubble of seawater. It froze instantly, preventing the Hyperboreans breathing or seeing. They grabbed at their heads desperately, but they all eventually keeled over dead and disintegrated. We had not even moved for the last two battles.

"You guys want to get out of here?" I asked.

"I can't see a way." Annabeth said.

"I figured out another talent that I have, but I've always been too scared to use it."

"What?"

"Let's beat whatever comes through this door and I will show everyone."

"Round five!"

I recognised the silhouette straight away. Massive head and massive upper body sat on relatively normal legs, but this time he had battle armour on, and hefted a huge battleaxe in the air.

"Demigods versus the Minotaur!" The announcers shouted excitedly, like he was introducing one of their star players.

"This one may take a bit more effort." I said, activating my shield.

"You two distract it, and I will do my thing." Annabeth ordered.

We nodded. Thalia struck him with a bolt of electricity while he was still posing for the crowd. It seemed to work, if pissing off a five hundred pound bull headed monster was what you were aiming for. He came charging at us, and we dived either side of him with no problems. We had now split up, but he always went for me, I guess he was still holding a grudge. After a few more charges, I caught him with Riptide, and ripped his chest plate off, but it didn't stop him at all, in fact he seemed to be glad to have gotten rid of it and he stared moving even faster. He brought his axe down onto my shield, smashing it clear of my arm and leaving it on the arena floor in pieces, and I fell backward with the mighty force of the blow. He snorted and lifted his axe up high, ready to deliver me to the underworld, when he promptly vanished into dust. The crowd gasped as Annabeth reappeared holding her knife like a dagger. She helped me up.

"Round five to the demigods! More battle this time!" The announcer enthused.

"You wanted to get out? Now is the time." Annabeth stated.

"Stand back!"

I looked up and prayed to my father, the Groundshaker. I held my fist aloft, jumped high into the air, I came down on one knee and slammed my fist into the ground with all might, feeling the power flow through my arm. The ground in front of me buckled and cracked as the waves of destruction radiated out from where I was knelt. Thalia and Annabeth both fell over as the whole arena started shaking, hit by a massive localised earthquake. The air supported arena roof collapsed onto the crowds of monsters and some of the stands crumbled away. Gaping holes in the floor opened up, and Annabeth grabbed me and Thalia, and pointed to them.

"They'll lead to the maintenance access tunnels beneath the arena and dome." She told us.

We grabbed our bags and wasted no time in climbing down the holes. Just like Annabeth said we would we found ourselves in the dome's maintenance tunnels and Annabeth led the way through the mess (Created by my earthquake) and she seemed to be headed for something in particular. Monsters still pursued us and we couldn't slow for a second.

"Where are you taking us?" I puffed.

"This is a huge structure." She said between breaths. "It couldn't quite fit on the site when they built it, and there is a ventilation shaft for the Blackwall road tunnel that was already here and it cuts right through the dome and I'm heading for it."

We reached some locked doors with no access signs on them and I smashed them open with Riptide. Thalia closed them behind us and stuck a broom through the handles.

"Might hold them for a bit." She shrugged.

Thirty or so yards later the room opened up into a massive vertical ventilation tunnel at least forty yards across, we could see the sky above.

"Up and out?" I asked.

"No. We don't know the state of the roof after your earthquake. We go down to the road tunnel."

I couldn't fault her logic, and we climbed down. After accessing a few maintenance hatches we climbed out onto the road itself.

"No traffic." I said.

"Well it's not really London is it? Just a copy of it." Annabeth reminded me.

"Oh yeah! It's easy to forget these realms can be so realistic. So where now?"

"I don't know. We never found out where the realm exit was." She admitted.

Drums bellowed out from one end of the tunnel.

"I suggest we go that way." Thalia said pointing away from the drumming.

We all ran down the tunnel only to find the shadows of huge monsters coming from in front of us.

"They have us trapped, we'll have to fight our way out." I said."

"Back this way, I saw an access hatch back there." Annabeth stated. We ran back to the big metal door, it had yellow and black stripy lines across it and amazingly it wasn't locked. We ran in and shut the door quietly behind us and entered the maze of tunnels that make up underground London.

"I think we've escaped." I said after walking for what seemed hours and hours, but Annabeth just wanted to keep going. I didn't want to admit to the others that the earthquake had physically drained me.

I was tired. I don't think I've ever been so tired. Every part of me hurt and I deeply wished to find some water to help me, water heals me you see, but there's no son of the sea god assistance in this place. Maybe if I could somehow convince the girls to stop, I could take the last of my nectar. In the end I didn't need to.

"Let's take a break", Thalia announced.

I looked around relieved, even if Thalia was being bossy, but I have got to admit she's better at this stuff than me, she doesn't even look tired, I can only assume it's something to do with her huntress enchantment. Annabeth on the other hand looked as tired as I felt, and she dropped her backpack in the passage without a second thought and sat down. I joined her and took out some ambrosia squares and offered one to her, which she grudgingly accepted.

"This looks like an abandoned subway", I said, doing my best to distract from the pain we were in.

"Like, duh, Mister Seaweed's genius strikes again." Annabeth snapped sarcastically. I cringed. She was not going to let the Rachel thing go no matter how much I protested my innocence.

"You were there Annabeth." I sighed. "I told you I had nothing to do with what she did, and however she did it, she did give us a prophecy, so why don't you try to explain that, wisest of girls." Annabeth just looked at me murderously.

"Come on Annabeth, a prophecy, which your mum, my dad, Chiron and Mr D believed. Forget about Rachel for now and try to think about the situation without emotion. Why are we here? Why us three? How did Giants get into Olympus? Why is this back door so complicated? Why have it if it's almost impossible to navigate?"

"I don't know Percy, I don't have the answers, but it has been on my mind too. Something doesn't feel right. Grover was manipulated out of the last realm for some reason. Someone put Juniper there so he would go back with her."

"I figured that too, but could not come up either a motive or suspect."

"That's fine you two, but how are we going to get out of here? Where's the exit?" Thalia butted in.

"The exit is at Canary Wharf. " I said.

"How do you know that?" Annabeth wanted to know.

"My dad told me when I prayed for an earthquake."

"Why in Zeus' name would he do that?"

"The next realm is his realm. The realm of Poseidon."


	13. Chapter 13: I Cry Saltwater Tears

**Chapter Thirteen**

**I Cry Saltwater Tears**

I led Annabeth and Thalia out of the empty Canary Wharf underground station, and was happy to find no-one waiting for us, in fact there was no one at all. We wandered around the completely deserted high rise business centre, looking up at the buildings and down into the water for any threats. We could see the Millennium Dome on the other side of the river, looking a little dented and bent from my localised earthquake, and I was glad the river was between us and Ares' improvised gladiatorial arena.

"This is Canary Wharf." Annabeth said. "Where's the exit?"

"I'm not completely sure, I know it's an elevator, but I was just told it was Canary Wharf, and I didn't realise it was so big." I admitted.

"It'll be One Canada Square." Annabeth said confidently.

"What's that?"

Annabeth pointed to the skyscraper ahead of us, a big silver rectangular block with a pyramid as its roof. "One Canada Square was the first skyscraper built on the site, and was the only one for years. Most of the locals refer to the tower as Canary Wharf even though that's not its name."

"Let's go then." I smiled. Annabeth was unmatched with her knowledge of architecture.

"And let's make it quick." Thalia announced, notching an arrow.

I looked around to find some Laestrygonian giants exiting the underground station. "Okay, I think running is a good idea!"

We stormed into the lobby of One Canada Square through the revolving doors, and across the polished marble floor.

"This way!" Annabeth shouted. I looked back to see the giants having trouble with the revolving door, and they just smashed it in frustration. Annabeth found the lift with the omega symbol and we piled in and pressed all the buttons. The doors didn't close. We were trapped, I felt the panic rising and went to uncap my sword as the giants approached, when the floor dropped away from us and it all went dark.

I could sense everything. I knew where I was, in fact I could pinpoint my position better than any GPS device. I was on an island and I knew its dimensions better than anyone on Google Earth. It was hot, in fact I could determine the weather and sea conditions better than NOAA. I could sense the life around me, and knew for certain that Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institution didn't know a fraction of what I did. I was the son of a sea god in the sea god's realm. What I didn't know was where Annabeth and Thalia were. I may have near omnipotence in the water, but I knew nothing about the land. It was time to find out.

I lifted my head out of the water and looked around. I was lying in the surf of a tropical atoll, and the sun was beating down relentlessly from a clear blue sky. It would of seemed like a paradise, but I knew where I was and I knew, even with my talents this was going to be a challenging task. Annabeth and Thalia were on the white beach looking miserable.

"Hi girls!" I greeted. "How's it going?"

"It might be alright for you, Seaweed brain, but it appears we are stuck on a desert island with no food, no water and sitting in armour in one hundred degree heat!" Annabeth snapped at me.

"Then take it off before you get sunstroke." I said, taking my armour off.

"What about monsters?" Thalia asked.

"This is Poseidon's realm, let me worry about monsters." I offered. They didn't like it, but the heat dictated everything here. I stripped down to my boxers and t-shirt and the girls both stripped down to their panties and t-shirts.

"Are you sitting comfortably?" A voice asked behind us, making us all jump around in shock.

A craggy faced man with tanned skin and neatly trimmed black beard stood before us, dressed in Bermuda shorts and a brightly coloured aloha shirt.

"Hi Dad." I said. To my surprise he ignored me completely.

"The exit is on an Island seventy five miles at 102.3 degrees from this position. Good luck." And with that he walked into the sea and vanished. I was distraught at being ignored by my own father.

"Don't forget, that wasn't Poseidon, it was just an avatar of him." Annabeth said, seeing the look on my face. I nodded, I knew this rationally was the case, but not many people experience being blatantly ignored by their dad when they are not expecting it.

"Do you know where we are?" Annabeth asked me.

I nodded. "Were on Enyu, in the south east part of Bikini Atoll, which one of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Island we have to get to is Rongelap Atoll.

"This was where the U.S. did its thermonuclear testing." Annabeth told us.

"I can feel the wrecks under the water, I can also sense the huge disturbances that happened here." I said. "Do you think radioactivity is a problem, Annabeth?"

To my surprise, it was Thalia that answered.

"There was no nuclear testing here, it was only the mist."

Annabeth and I looked at her incredulously. "The mist? Covering for what?" Annabeth demanded.

"This was a prison for Typhon before Mt. St. Helens. He got loose, and there was a big battle here. The united Gods defeated Typhon, even Hades helped and moved him to Washington State."

"How did I not know about this?"

"The Gods don't talk about Typhon, Annabeth. I only know through Artemis, who plays by different rules."

Annabeth shook her head and looked at me. "So Seaweed Brain, can you get us to that island?"

I thought about it and quickly realised it would be near on impossible to get two non water breathers across seventy five miles of open water without some help.

"No, it's too dangerous, only a slight lapse in concentration and you two could drown, also it would be exhausting for me and I don't know how long I could last. We need a boat or at least a raft."

"Not much chance of that here." Thalia said glumly.

"Maybe there is. Think about it." Annabeth explained. "Poseidon would not have known his son was going to come through the realm, and must have had a way for other demigods to navigate to Rongelap. We should have a look around."

Thalia and I nodded in agreement, and we made our way inland. It didn't take long to find something.

"It's an airstrip." Annabeth proclaimed.

There was an abandoned airstrip that had seen better days, and we noticed a collection of ruined buildings and we headed their way. It turned out that there was virtually nothing left, but I figured we could find some wood to fashion some sort of raft. Annabeth was our designer, so I left her to it as a compulsion to head further on grabbed me, and I was surprised to find a little boat dock overlooking the atoll's lagoon, and sat on the sand was the remains of an old fibreglass dory. I gave it an inspection and found it was holed, but I wasn't worried too much about that. The outboard engine was corroded to uselessness, so I unattached it. I would do, I thought to myself, just need to do something with the holes. I returned to the old airstrip buildings and told the others what I found and they excitedly ran off to have a look, while I picked up an old tarpaulin and some rope and some old sandbags. I carried my haul to the boat, to find Annabeth and Thalia looking at me sceptically.

"It's got a big hole in it." Annabeth proclaimed.

"I can keep the water out, and I brought some stuff here for insurance."

"Insurance?" Annabeth enquired.

"Yes, insurance. I can't concentrate on keeping the water out of the boat all of the time. What if I fall asleep? What if a monster attacks the boat? What if we get caught in a storm? I'm also going to have to concentrate on navigating, stability, thrust and getting food and water. Make no arguments, this is going to be a challenge for me." I grabbed the tarpaulin and showed the girls what I wanted to do.

"We have to tie the tarp around the bottom of the boat to cover the hole. It won't be perfect but it should stop the boat from sinking if I have to concentrate on something else for a bit.

"And the sandbags?"

We tie them with a length of rope and tow them behind us as sea anchors to make the boat more stable in open water and rough weather."

We started to make the boat seaworthy, cleaning out all the sand and rocks, and tying the tarp around the base of the boat, it was quite heavy and took all three of us to turn the boat over. I was getting drained by the heat, and I took my t-shirt off and continued to work before noticing both girls looking at me.

"What?"

Thalia went red and went back to work, while Annabeth smiled and blushed a little.

"You look quite good in just your underwear, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth answered back, and then she took of her t-shirt too. Her bra and panties matched and she looked sensational. I went red and turned away hoping the girls wouldn't notice the bulge in my boxers.

We finished off the boat and I pulled in the sea to float it. We grabbed our stuff and chucked it in and climbed in.

"Okay Perce, do your stuff.

I was glad of having stuff to do instead of looking at Annabeth. I'm sure she knew the effect she was having on me and she was teasing me relentlessly by sitting next to me, touching me and moving around in front of me wearing next to nothing. I looked away and got my bearings and willed the sea to push our boat through the lagoon. We left the lagoon through a small inlet and crashed through the surf. I laughed as waves crashed over the boat soaking Annabeth and Thalia, but I loved it.

"I can push the boat at about five knots without tiring too much, meaning the journey will take us about thirteen hours if the weather stays fair." I told the girls. They nodded in answer and relaxed into the boat. I pointed the boat in the right direction and we were on our way.

"Any thoughts on our quest yet?" I asked Annabeth. Thalia had fallen asleep at the front of the boat.

"I did look like we were being manipulated, but that could just be the fates intervening to comply with the prophecy, or it could be someone playing with us. We just don't know at this stage, but we should be cautious." I nodded in agreement.

"Have you had any dreams?" I enquired delicately. Annabeth's eyes went wide, and she looked away.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well demigods have dreams all the time, and they can mean something." I answered.

"Have you?" She asked back.

"Yes, a warning for the realm of Aphrodite."

"My mother told me the same thing." She said deflecting my question. "I don't know how dangerous she can be, I mean, all her children are right poncy anti-violence perfectionists." I nodded getting the impression that she didn't really believe what she was saying.

"I can't talk about this now I'm too tired, do you mind if I have some sleep." She said.

"Of course not, I'll keep lookout."

Annabeth stretched out onto the bottom of the boat and put her head on my chest. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. She eventually fell asleep and amused me by gently snoring, and hugging me tighter. I continued the boat on its journey and the girls slept for hours. I didn't feel tired at all and knew that at sea I could last a long time without needing sleep. We had about ten miles to go when I looked down at Annabeth still sleeping. I brushed her scraggily blonde hair from her face and shoulders and couldn't help noticing one of her nipples had popped out of her bra. I stared for a long time, resisting the urge to stroke it until a gasp grabbed my attention. Thalia was awake, had turned bright red and had her hand over her mouth. She looked away.

I looked down to find in my aroused state I had burst though the fly of my boxers and was visibly standing to attention. And Thalia had seen me! Waves of embarrassment rolled over me, as I dropped Annabeth's head off my chest and to the deck and I jumped into the sea to both cool down and hide my embarrassment.

"What d'you do that for." Annabeth said, groggily, holding her head. I looked at Thalia and she was smiling she and made a quick zip motion across her lips. I was both embarrassed and excited that Thalia has seen me like that, and was glad she wasn't going to say anything.

"Um, sorry Annabeth, I thought I sensed something in the water." I made up on the spot.

"Annabeth." Thalia said quietly, pointing at her bra. Annabeth turned a dark shade of red and readjusted her undergarments. At least Thalia had taken the focus off of me.

"So what did you sense?" She asked me.

I didn't know what to say. I was just about to make something up when I did sense a danger. Two of them in fact.

"There's a big storm in our path." I pointed. The girls looked around at the darkening skies.

"You should be able to get us past that." Annabeth said.

"Normally yes, but there appears to be some kind of sea monster in our path."

"What type of monster?"

A huge green fishy-reptilian head and body reared out of the water about two hundred yards away. It was at least fifty feet high and we could only see half of it.

"That type of monster, Annabeth!"

"It's Cetus! Sometimes known in modern times as the Kraken!"

"How do we beat it?"

"Perseus, the original one I mean, turned it to stone with a Medusas' head!"

"Well I don't have one of those, so I'll just have to try my best." I said valiantly.

I sent huge rogue waves rolling towards Cetus, and tried to manoeuvre the boat around him. Nothing worked. Thalia hit him with huge lightning bolts from the storm, but it just seemed to piss him off even more. I tried surfing the boat at high speed, but Cetus was faster. The monster tried to make a grab for the boat, and I turned the boat clear at the last second, but the pressure wave of his giant hand overturned our makeshift little vessel sending all of us flying into the now choppy ocean. I sensed Thalia was in trouble and swam to help her. She was unconscious and bleeding from the forehead, the boat must have hit her, I thought. I looked for Annabeth frantically, but couldn't sense her at all. To my horror the monster, Cetus had hold of her on one of his huge hands.

"Annabeth!" I cried. The creature made a grab for me and Thalia, and I powered myself and Thalia's limp form underwater at high speed and we just avoided the beast's hand. I placed an air bubble around Thalia's head and powered for the shore at as high a speed as I could manage, knowing there was nothing I could do. If I let Thalia go for a second her unconsciousness would soon turn to death by drowning.

I got to the rainy beach of Rongelap Atoll in no time whatsoever, and lay Thalia down on the wet white sand. I could barely move, I'd used so much power, and I staggered back to the water and waded in. It then hit me, I could sense nothing, nothing at all, and there was no sign that the monster, Cetus had ever existed. Thalia was hurt, we had lost all of our weapons, armour and supplies and I dropped to my knees and cried a rain of tears. My heart had been ripped out and I didn't know how I could function ever again, and I wanted to end it all here as I came to the realise my biggest fear had come to pass.

Annabeth was gone.


	14. Chapter 14: Testing Times

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Testing Times**

I felt like I had sat for hours in the pounding surf, but I got no sign of what had happened to Annabeth. I couldn't bring myself to even consider that she might be dead. I climbed out of the water and headed over to Thalia in a daze. Her face was still covered in blood, I returned to the water and willed a living sponge into my hand, walked back to Thalia and cleaned the blood of her face, and was pleased to find the cut wasn't large, but head wounds always look messy. Thalia's eyes fluttered open as I was washing her and she looked at me with fear in her eyes.

"I-I'm Alive?" She stammered.

"Yes Thalia, you are on Rongelap." I said without a trace of emotion.

"Where's Annabeth." She said looking around.

I looked down, and explained to her what happened, and we were soon crying in each other's arms.

"I failed her, Thalia!" I wept. "It's all my fault!"

"What could you do, Percy? You were up against a water demon more far more ancient and powerful than you, you saw no way of retrieving her, and if you did, I would be dead. So thank you for my life, Percy Jackson, you sacrificed a chance at saving Annabeth to save my life." She gave me another hug.

"She may have been my best friend Percy, but I can't even begin to imagine what you are going through right now. Love is but a distant memory to a huntress, but I know you loved her Percy, even if you were too shy to tell her. But I could tell, anyone at camp could tell. You two were destined to be together, so don't give up Percy, the Gods play cruel games on us and there may be hope yet. Not to mention that the prophecy said that three of us would make Olympus."

"I do love her Thalia, but it took this to make me realise it. I feel so thick."

"Do you think you are born with emotions, Percy? You're a teenager and they all have to go through this emotional turmoil. You feel lust, love, longing, envy and pride, and they seem so powerful, but we cannot differentiate between them sometimes and we all have to learn how to interpret them. It makes us awkward with feelings and we exaggerate things, like Annabeth's jealousy of Rachel. Becoming a hunter of Artemis made much of this clear to me.

"Do you ever regret becoming a hunter?" I asked.

"I don't regret it for a second Percy, if it means avoiding the hurt you must be going through right now." Thalia said. "Where is the exit?"

"The hut under that lookout tower, over there." I pointed. "But I can't leave without Annabeth."

"Then we fail the quest."

How could I do it? How could I just leave her? In the end the decision was made for me. The water receded into the distance and left hundreds of yards of seabed exposed. A white line of surf in the distance headed for us.

"Tsunami." I said. "The most powerful force in nature."

"Can you stop it?"

"Not even the son of the sea God can stop that. The realm is forcing us out of here."

"How long have we got?" She asked looking very worried now.

"About ninety seconds." I said blankly

"C'mon then we have to run!" She grabbed my arm and dragged me along with her.

The water started roaring, and I started running really hard towards the lookout tower. The door was a bit rusty and it took a lot of effort to open it, and I could see we were not going to have enough time.

"Keep going with the door, Thalia." I shouted over the noise.

A wave four yards high crashed over the beach and kept on coming. I redirected it around the tower but didn't know how long I could hold on.

"Let's go, Percy!"

I jumped through the door and down through a trap door in the floor after Thalia.

We landed in a flame lit stone room with a stern looking woman in front of us. If we weren't in trouble before with the rogue wave, I knew we were in trouble now.

"Perseus Jackson what have you done with my daughter you cursed son of Poseidon?"

"I-I lost her Athena." I knelt down, feeling very unworthy.

"What is there to stop me from destroying you where you kneel?" She snarled

"I wouldn't blame you, I would die in her place if I could."

Athena looked at me coolly. "I might take you up on that offer, son of Poseidon."

"My name is Percy Jackson!" I said defiantly. "And I did everything in my power to help Annabeth, but fate took the decision out of my hands!"

"You have some fire in you Percy Jackson, I can even see how you could have beguiled my daughter."

I looked at Thalia. "Beguiled?"

"Enchant or bewitch." Thalia explained.

"I don't know if I have beguiled Annabeth, see seems quite frosty towards me recently, no thanks to you, but I do know that I love her, and would assault the castle of Hades to bring her back."

"I'll admit I haven't helped your cause, so you'll have to prove to me that you are worthy of her, young demigod, by navigating your way through my realm. Annabeth would have done it easily, but you two will have a harder time of it, especially as you only have your undergarments for company."

I looked down at my battered underpants and across to Thalia in her panties and halter top vest. "I don't suppose you have any spare clothes food or weapons?" I asked, with more hope than expectation.

"Help you? That wouldn't be my best strategy." She said back.

"Fine. I can play your games." I snapped. "Is Annabeth alive?"

"That depends on how well you do here." Athena said. She vanished in a flash of light.

We were left stood in the stone room. It was square with one exit, a straight corridor. There was a closed door at the end. We looked at each other and shrugged and proceeded to walk up the corridor. The door was locked and there was some large and small pithos of wine. The large ones said five on them and the small ones said three on them. A sink like hole by the door had a message by it.

_Four will open the door, more will open the floor._

I smiled. "I've seen this puzzle before in Die Hard 3"

"What does it want exactly?"

"The puzzle wants four, let's call them quarts, poured into the sinkhole, any more and the trap floor will open."

"But we only have five and three quart jugs, how do we get four?" She asked.

I grabbed an empty five quart jug and poured three quarts in, got another full three quart jug and filled the five quart up to the top.

"I have one quart left in the three quart jug from filling up the five quart."

I got an empty five quart, put my one quart in, plus another three quarts from another jug.

"Four quarts, thank you Bruce Willis!" I said, pouring the wine in the hole. The door clicked open.

"Ladies first!" I said smugly. Thalia shook her head and went through the door, and I followed right behind.

We emerged in another corridor, still made of stone, like the basement of a castle. We passed locked empty iron barred cells. It looked like prison from a Second World War German castle. We heard footsteps coming down some steps and before we could take cover a Nazi guard walked around the corner. Seeing us he pulled a knife and thrust it at me, my demigod reflexes kicked in and I sidestepped the thrust, grabbed his knife arm and head butted him full in the face. It hurt like hell and stars swam around my vision but my dizziness receded quickly, the guard wasn't so fortunate, and he dropped to the floor like a sack of spuds.

"Nice one, Percy!"Thalia said.

I smiled, holding my head. "I don't want to have to do that again.

I searched the guard and found his knife, a Zippo lighter, a set of keys and an unloaded Luger handgun. I handed them to Thalia while I removed the guard's clothes.

I tried them on and it was a reasonably good fit.

"Percy, you look really scary!" Thalia said, looking shocked and amused at the same time.

I looked down and thought I looked quite smart, until I saw the iron cross on my chest and the swastika on my right arm, then I felt a bit sick.

One bonus of dressing as the guard soon presented itself. A pen appeared in my pocket.

"Thalia! I've got Riptide back! It just needed a pocket!"

We deposited the guard in one of the cells and locked it with the keys. And we made our way up the steps and quietly opened the door. A young blonde woman was typing at a desk and was shocked to find a young black haired woman holding a gun to her head and an unfamiliar guard holding a bronze sword.

"Was ist das?" She spluttered. Neither Thalia or I spoke any German. Thalia motioned for her to undress and cocked the pistol when the woman refused. Thalia looked serious, and spoke the only German she knew, a countdown.

"Zehn, neun, acht, sieben, sechs..."

The woman looked panicked, and complied removing all her clothes. My eyes bugged out, but Thalia rolled her eyes and gave the woman her underwear back, while she put on the Nazi woman's uniform and took the woman down to the cells to be locked up.

We searched the room and found, some food, ammunition for the gun, and code charts for something, but not being able to speak german, we didn't know what they were for.

"Did Annabeth speak German?" Thalia asked me.

"It wouldn't surprise me, I know she can speak ancient Greek, modern Greek, Latin, French, Spanish and Italian as well as English of course. I really hope she's okay."

"Me too. I feel she was at the center of our world and I feel a little lost without her."

We gathered our stuff and opened the other door in the secretary's office, it was long and unoccupied.

"It's a shooting range." Thalia pronounced."Athena wants to give us a multi-layered test."

"Can you shoot?" I asked.

She looked insulted. "I'm a hunter of Artemis, I can use any ranged weapon." She said as she expertly loaded a magazine into the handgun. She took a step forward and the doors slammed shut, and the ceiling started to slowly drop.

"Great, Athena's gone all Indiana Jones on us! Shoot something!" I shouted.

Thalia stayed calm and concentrated on the targets downrange. They were spinning around and stopping only for a fraction of a second. There were nine of them.

"Nine bullets, nine targets, no problem."

She fired the whole magazine in about ten seconds. The ceiling stopped and doors opened.

We high-fived each other. "Athena messed with the wrong team!" I said. "Great shooting, Thalia, I could kiss you."

"As nice as that sounds Percy, Artemis would be very upset, but I'd be more worried about the wrath of Annabeth." Thalia said, winking at me.

I laughed and we continued on our way. We walked into a small square room with two doors, between which a familiar and unwelcome figure was sat, with its two faces on either side of its head.

"Janus." God of doorways, and choices, I said moodily. I didn't like this god very much.

"Perseus Jackson!" Please read the sign above my head."

I looked up.

_One tells the truth, but the other will just lie,_

_One door is freedom, but the other you will just die._

_Ask One Question._

"Goddess fail!" I shouted. "Athena assumes without Annabeth we would have trouble with logic riddles, and most of the time she would be right, but like the first puzzle, I've seen it in a film!

"What film?" Thalia enquired.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Labyrinth!"

"You've got to be kidding me- hey, wait a minute, I've seen that film too, and didn't the girl get it wrong?"

"Oh yeah." I said, a bit deflated. "But the film gives me the right idea."

"Left face! What door would the Right face tell me is the door to freedom?" I asked

"The right door of course!" Janus' left face announced.

"It's the left door." I said confidently.

"What if he is telling the truth?" Thalia asked, confused.

"Then, the other is lying. Because I asked one what the other would do, the truth and lie will always cancel out, whatever way round it is. See you later two-face!"

"You better be right, Percy."

I am, let's go as we walked out of the door and into a scene of utter chaos.

We were standing on the pavement of a large metropolis. It was a very hot day and there were large amounts of people and traffic going about their business. It suddenly made me feel very self conscious to be wearing a Nazi uniform in public. Thalia and I looked at each other and quickly dumped our Jackets, and I pulled at my pants, that were tucked into my jackboots so they came out and covered the boots. We blended in well enough.

"Now where are we, and where are we supposed to go?" I said.

I didn't recognise the city or the writing on the signs, but I did recognise the alphabet they were using.

"Thalia, I think we're in-"

"Greece." She said, cutting me off.

"How did you get it? The Greek Aplphabet?"

"Nope." She pointed and in the distance sitting prominently on a lump of rock in the middle of the city, was one of the world's most famous buildings. The Parthenon.

"We're in Athens?" I asked, knowing the answer.

"It makes sense, doesn't it? Athena? Athens? She's patron of the city. It was named for her." Thalia told me. "And it's like we have to get to the Parthenon. Can't you feel the impulsion?"

I could feel it. A strong urge to get to that set of ruins dominating the skyline.

"Shall we take a taxi?" I asked.

"We've got no money."

"No you don't understand. We'll take one. You still have that gun don't you? Or can you not manipulate the mist?" She nodded.

We walked over and climbed into the taxi in the front of a queue, and Thalia pulled a gun and threatened the driver with it, and he didn't need much convincing to get out. Thalia jumped into the driver's seat and took off.

"What about the mist?" I asked.

"Don't know modern Greek." She explained. "Luckily the modern Greek knew gun."

As we got closer, the roads started to give us problems. Police in riot gear had blocked off many roads and we could see smoke rising ahead.

"Civil disturbance? I think I heard somewhere that the country is in financial trouble." I said.

"How do we get through? The roads are blocked off."

"Try that road over there, it seems to be free of police." I suggested, pointing.

We turned the corner and ran into a mass of masked rioters wielding every type of improvised weapon imaginable. A Molotov cocktail flew though the air and smashed in front of our taxi, setting the hood on fire.

"Okay, I've had enough now."

I projected my conciseness outwards and found every source of water on the street and _pushed._

Water mains and hydrants blew upward explosively smashing into the rioters, sewerage blew out of manhole covers covering everything in the street in a layer of excrement, most ran for cover, but still some wouldn't get out of our way.

"Thalia, we need a spark to move these people." I suggested.

She said nothing and slightly closed her eyes, and a massive lightning bold stuck our taxi.

"Jesus Thalia! Not us!" I screamed holding my head.

"Don't worry we're safe in a car, and it's scaring them, look!" Thalia said, hitting the car with another bolt. "I can't use indiscriminate lightning, I might take down a telegraph pole or kill someone."

We eventually got through the rioting throngs as they ran away from the lightning and approached the Acropolis upon which the Parthenon sits.

"Stop!" I shouted. Thalia slammed on the brakes.

"Over there! The Acropolis Museum!"

"What about it?" Thalia asked.

"It has the Omega sign, the realm sign." I said. Thalia pulled into the car park and we got out to investigate.

"It looks shut."

There was nobody around, but the front doors were unlocked. We went in to the lobby and straight on into another room, where the doors slammed shut on us.

"I guess we're in the right place." I announced, uncapping Riptide.

The only door we could get out through was dark, and as we moved towards it a huge figure appeared, firmly guarding the doorway. It had the body of a lion and the head of a woman, and I'd seen a smaller one in the Labyrinth.

"A Sphinx." I said to Thalia, unnecessarily. "They like riddles."

"Demigods! Answer or die!

_I do not breathe, but I run and jump.  
I do not eat, but I swim and stretch.  
I do not drink, but I sleep and stand.  
I do not think, but I grow and play.  
I do not see, but you see me every day._

I had no idea. I looked at Thalia, and she shrugged. My mind raced, but I couldn't think of what it could be.

"Time!" The Sphinx shouted with a roar.

"Wait! Can't you ask us what the capital of Peru is, or something?" I asked, not knowing what else to say.

"Die!"

As it's front paws rose into the air, ready to strike us dead, it vanished in a rain of gold dust and before us was a fearsome looking armoured warrior brandishing a wicked looking bronze knife.

The warrior sheathed the knife and removed their winged helmet, and to our surprise a shower of golden hair poured out.

Thalia and I looked on thunderstruck, not knowing what to say.

"Hi guys. Miss me?"


	15. Chapter 15: I See Dead People

**Chapter Fifteen**

**I See Dead People**

"Annabeth?" I gasped.

"What, you blind as well as stupid, Seaweed Brain?"

I walked up to her and enfolded her in a tight hug. "I thought I'd lost you." I repeated over and over in her ear, tears streaming down my face. "I thought I'd let you die."

She pulled her head away from mine and looked at me with a completely shocked look on her face. She looked around at Thalia when it was clear I was to cut up to answer. Thalia too was crying as she came up to hug Annabeth.

"The Kraken took you in Poseidon's realm, we thought you were dead!" Thalia blurted out between sobs. Annabeth looked completely crestfallen, and tears started to form in her eyes.

"I-I don't remember any of that. I fell in the water and I was transported to my mother.

"That's not what we saw, Annabeth. Athena must have been manipulating us." Thalia stuttered.

She looked back at me almost crying as much as me. "I'm not dead, Percy, I'm here. Nothing was your fault." I didn't respond. "Can you hear me Percy? Percy, are you okay?"

I looked into her beautiful grey eyes, they were glistening with tears. I was trying to hold it together, but seeing Annabeth upset only made it worse.

"I can't lose you again, Annabeth, not again!" I cried. "It was bad enough with Atlas, but-but-"

"But what, Percy?"

I ran my hand through her hair and wiped some tears off of her cheek.

"You mean too much too me, Annabeth" I grabbed her for another hug. I glanced across at Thalia, who looked a little bit disappointed. "Tell Her!" She mouthed at me.

It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do and I started sweating with the nerves of the moment. I took Annabeth's hands in mine and looked directly into her eyes. My mouth went dry, and just for a moment I thought I was going to bottle it, but I didn't. Maybe Aphrodite was looking over us.

"I love you Annabeth Chase, please don't leave me again!"

I had just enough time to register the shock in her eyes before I kissed her. To my relief she kissed me back and didn't pull away and we just held each other for what seemed like an eternity. I didn't want it to end, and not just because it was wonderful, but because I was scared to death with what she was going to say to me. We eventually parted for air.

"P-Percy!" Was all she could say. She looked very red and flustered and was breathing deeply. We looked over to Thalia who was sat on a bench sobbing like a baby. "About fucking time!" She blubbed.

I smiled, but Annabeth looked a bit shocked.

"I mean it, Annabeth. Deep down I've known for ages."

"What about Rachel?" Annabeth asked warily.

"She's my friend, Annabeth, nothing more, and she never has been anything more, or never will."

"I've still got to sort out my feelings Percy, you kinda sprung this on me." She said, and she put her finger on my lips before I could respond. "But I kind of like the way things are looking, but don't get too big for your boots, Seaweed Brain, we've a quest to finish." And with that she kissed me, and my heart danced a little flutter.

"That one was for free, if you want any more you'll have to earn them." She said with a smile.

I grinned like an idiot. "Just tell me what to do my mistress!"

"Here put this on." She threw Thalia and me our backpacks and armour. "Athena rescued your stuff."

"Why did she take you anyway?" I asked, feeling much better.

"She wanted to speak to me, she told me that it would be vital to learn my full potential before the inevitable upcoming war with the Titans. I also got the impression she was testing you, she doesn't trust the sons of Poseidon" I grunted my agreement.

Thalia and I filled Annabeth in as to what happened to us.

"Nice one with the riddles, I would have got them easily of course."

"Of course." I repeated, smiling. Annabeth punched me jokingly in the shoulder.

"Anyway, Athena told me about the next realm, and I must say it's all a bit unexpected." She said nervously. "Demigods are never told about the fourteenth realm, just in case they refuse to go through."

"Great." I deadpanned, having guessed what was coming.

"I agree with you Percy, and if you haven't guessed yet, Thalia, we have to go down to the basement to enter the realm of Hades. We have to visit the underworld."

We walked down to the museum basement in silence, I mean what is there to talk about when you are just about to visit the land of the dead. Thalia looked scared to death, Annabeth and I had already been there and I thought Thalia didn't look half as terrified as she should be. I looked at the others, and got a reassuring nod from Annabeth and we opened the door and walked through into blackness.

We stopped when we realised there was no light to enter and then we heard someone flick a switch and strip lights flicked on over our heads. We were in a regular looking school classroom, with desks and a blackboard, and someone had been doodling some new torture machines on the board. Sat in front of the blackboard were three vaguely familiar looking people. "Welcome to death and this is your judgement." The first person announced. "I am Albert Einstein, and I am one of your three judges, with me today are Jimi Hendrix and Josef Stalin." The wild haired Albert pointed to the others in turn.

"Fields of Punishment!" Stalin shouted.

"Calm down, Josef! You say that to everyone." Jimi responded. "I sense that they're heroes, and that means Elysium. They all stared at us with looked of intense concentration written all over their faces, and then, one by one, surprise registered.

"They're not dead!" Einstein shouted.

"No we are not good sir's we are just passing through." Annabeth answered.

"Realmers huh, that's cool, you just have to pass through all three regions of the Underworld and cross the Styx." Hendrix responded.

Stalin smiled evilly, "You'll get to see the Fields of Punishment anyway, sweet dreams."

Einstein waved us out of the door. "You'll start in Elysium, good luck in your quest."

We walked through the door into the corridor. "Three regions of the Underworld?" Thalia asked.

"Elysium, Asphodel and Fields of Punishment, Or Heaven, Eternity and Hell, depending on what you want to call them." Annabeth answered.

"Oh great! The fields of Punishment sounds like a hoot." Thalia joked.

"Don't joke Thalia, no one has ever seen the Fields of Punishment and returned. We have no idea of the horrors to expect there." Annabeth stated, darkening the mood. We left the building and entered a sort of fog, but the path was clear to see, and it didn't take long to reach a set of gates. They were huge, and shone with a golden glow. They were also guarded.

"This is as far as you go." A huge, but good looking bearded man stated with some authority."

"We are just passing through." I said. "We are not dead."

"We don't take tourists either, and if you want to get past me, you're going to have to fight me. And you don't want to fight me, trust me on that." The guard responded.

"I will if I have to." I said uncapping Riptide. The guard's eyes went wide. He wasn't expecting that, I thought to myself smiling. As it turned out he was surprised for a completely different reason.

"Anaklusmos!" The man proclaimed. "You must be worthy if you carry my old sword."

"I am worthy, my name is Percy Jackson, and I am the son of Poesidon, and these are the daughters of Athena and Zeus."

The man looked at Thalia. "Daughter of Zeus eh? That's always a hard road, welcome to Elysium my sister, and other relatives, I am Hercules."

We were being let into heaven by the most famous demigod of all time, and I wanted to geek out. I looked at Annabeth, who was grinning ear to ear and Thalia looked completely stunned.

"Nice to meet you Hercules, even now you are the most famous demigod to have ever existed." I said.

He just shrugged. "I did many good things, and many things I'm not so proud of. But I lived a good life overall, I think. "Hercules said as he showed us around Elysium. We passed through gardens and fields, passed by the most amazing and beautiful structures and Annabeth wanted to stop and admire every one of them. Everyone seemed happy and they paid no attention to us at all until we were nearing the End of our Elysium tour.

"Percy? Annabeth?" A voice said from behind us. We looked around and saw the smiling form of Lee Fletcher, the Apollo cabin councillor who died in the summer.

"Lee!" Annabeth shouted in delight and she ran and gave him a hug. Thalia and I followed suit.

"You're not dead are you?" He asked. "No, just passing through, Lee" I said.

"How's camp?"

"Mostly fixed. Michael Yew is head of your cabin now." I told him.

"I don't think he's really ready for it yet. He's too hot headed, he tries to compensate for his small size with a large personality. He also hates Clarisse. Would you keep an eye on him for me?"

"Of course, Lee." I said. I also hated Clarisse.

"Okay, thanks, where are you headed?" He asked.

"The Fields of Asphodel are next up for us." Annabeth told him.

"Oh. Nothing much to see there, but if you must go, just go out of the gate there and head past the castle. Watch out for the Tartarus, which is located there." He informed us.

"Thanks, Lee. And we'll look after Michael." I said. We all gave him another hug, said our goodbyes, and passed through the gate. The fog surrounded us again, but cleared as we approached Hades' castle. It was a brooding black obsidian structure sitting on an outcrop of rock. Fire surrounded the whole outcrop and the whole castle was lit up in its red flickering glow. I'd been here before of course, and was glad I was only passing this time. We barely even knew when we passed into the Fields of Asphodel as there was literally nothing to see. Wheat fields as far as the eye can see, with just the odd tree breaking up the endlessness. We sensed the evil of the Tartarus to our left and we all decided not to go that way.

"There's nothing here." I said.

"Just stop and look for a second, Percy." Annabeth told me. I did, and things got a little clearer. The fields were home to ghosts, and in untold numbers, but they could only be seen if you really looked for them, and they couldn't see us at all. They just wandered to and fro in a sort of trance, not looking, listening or communicating in any way whatsoever.

"What a horrid existence." I told them.

"Yes, but they can be reborn, and they do they won't remember any of this, and it's certainly better than eternal Punishment." Annabeth told me.

We wandered onwards until we reached a tree, where too our surprise a young dark skinned girl was sat looking right at us.

"You're not dead!" She exclaimed.

"Yeh, we get that a lot." I answered back. "Are you not dead either?"

"I am most defiantly dead, but I am Hades' daughter so I can't lose my mind in this place."

"Shouldn't you be in Elysium?" I asked her.

"Yes, I was offered Elysium, but I gave it up so save my mother from eternal punishment, so I've ended up here." She said sadly.

"I'm Percy Jackson, this is Annabeth Chase and Thalia Grace, we are passing through the underworld regions as a test, and we have to get to the Fields of Punishment next, can you help us?"

"Yes, you have to climb the Walls of Erebos, but that's easier than it was as Daedalus has built some overpasses and steps, then you have to cross over the main gate and climb down into the Fields. I wouldn't recommend it though."

"No choice, I'm afraid." I told her. She just shrugged.

"The Walls are this way." She pointed. "I'm Hazel Levesque, by the way."

We walked for what seemed miles before we saw the walls, and suddenly we were upon them. There were now steps to the top, and we looked back at Hazel.

"Can you come with us?" I asked

"I can't pass the boundaries of Asphodel, trust me I've tried."

"Can we give a message to anyone?" Annabeth asked her.

"Everyone I know is dead. I wouldn't even know what year it was." She told us.

I nodded in response, an idea forming in my head. "I'll tell you what, Hazel. I know a son of Hades who occasionally comes here looking for his sister, Bianca. We'll tell him he has another sister here, and he might be able to do something for you. His name is Nico de Angelo."

"I appreciate that, Percy, but I won't hold out any hope. Hope is deadly in this place. Good luck in your quest."

She turned and walked off slowly disappearing into nothing.

We all felt sad about Hazel's plight, but we had a quest to finish so we ploughed on. We climbed the obsidian steps and we could see the River Styx in the distance, looking black and forbidding. I wasn't looking forward to crossing it. I couldn't believe Nico wanted me to bathe in it. We walked along the top of the wall and eventually reached the main entrance to the Underworld. The wall continued over the entrance, meaning we didn't have to encounter Cerberus again, and made our way to the Fields of Punishment and climbed down. We simply were not prepared for what we were going to see. I grabbed Annabeth's hand, and this time she didn't let go.

It was hot, almost unbearably so, and the very air we breathed seemed like a poisonous smoke. Screams surrounded us, like the sound was carried on the very wind itself. Thalia screamed as she realised the path we were walking on was made up of living human faces, the fences were build from human bones and barbed wire covered in blood. We were so horrified, we failed to notice a huge demon approach us.

"Welcome, demigods, to hell." It said in a voice so low, the vibration almost cracked the bones in our feet. It was easily ten feet tall with glowing eyes, sharp teeth and was wielding a huge club full of bloody spikes. We fumbled for our weapons, but the demon made a placating gesture.

"No need to fight, you are not dead, and I am instructed to be your guide and protector, lest the other demon's fancy having some fun with you."

We didn't say anything, I mean what was there to say? We just wanted to get out of here before we all threw up. The demon lead us to a bridge. The bridge was made of human corpses, or so we thought.

"We sew bodies together to make a bridge, and they get to feel the pain every waking second, the pain of supporting all the weight, the pain of beings walking over them, the pain of the acid rain. It's glorious!" I wasn't sure I was going to like the demons running commentary.

"See the river? It's blood of course, there are millions of beings killed every day in the most horrible ways to keep the river of blood flowing, and the best thing is they are brought back to life to experience the horror every day for eternity!"

I looked down to the edges of the river only to see people tied up to stakes and a variety of torture devices. Some were being pecked to death by birds, some were being mauled by beasts, who were also feasting on their entrails, some, the lucky ones, were killed quickly by sentry demons with swords and knives. I looked away, the gorge rising in my stomach. Annabeth wasn't so lucky, she stopped and vomited. The guard demon did not even notice.

"Now we reach the fire plains, Hades loves fire of course and we get to use it in every way possible here. Their deaths are so wonderfully painful and imaginative!" I tried not to look but it was impossible. There were people being burned at the stake, made into human fireballs, and some were being lowered slowly into pits of lava. We could barely hear the guard demon for all the screams.

"What would happen to us if you weren't here?" Annabeth asked the demon. Looking very ill indeed, but still hungry for knowledge.

"The demons would find you and impose punishments, they would probably rape you first, and this alone would cause serious damage as the demons have a very sharp penis and their seed is highly acidic and burns the insides terribly. You might also give birth to a demon child which would eat its way out of your belly while you watch." The demon looked at me. "This can happen to the men too." The demon smiled showing its sharp teeth.

"Annabeth, can you stay quiet from now on please." I said feeling even sicker. Annabeth nodded in complete agreement.

"This is the last section you will be shown. It's the area for our VIP's. The specialist torture zone."

I spotted Tantalus sat under a tree looking glum. I knew him to be eternally hungry and thirsty and he could never eat or drink.

"There is Hitler over there, he is forced to live the life of a Jewish person under the reign of the Nazis until his death by gassing. Over and over again". A quite emaciated, but recognisable figure staggered past a fence with a yellow star on his jacket.

"Next we have our suicide bomber section, they think they are getting to Paradise with seventy virgins, but what they really get is some ugly harpies tying them down and slowly eating them. It's one of my favourite designs!"

"Can we get out of here please, we've seen enough." Thalia said

"You don't want to see any more?" The demon seemed amazed.

"No more." Thalia said. I wholeheartedly agreed with her.

"Suit yourself, but I haven't even got to the knife pits, the blades or the acid baths."

"No more, we want to go."

The demon looked a bit down but took us to the Wall of Erebos.

"There you go, please come again!" He said with some hope.

We shook our heads and climbed up the steps to the top of the wall. We sat down for a breather.

"We can never unsee what we have just seen." Annabeth said gently weeping.

I put my arms around her and gave her a big hug. I then went and gave Thalia one too. I handed out some ambrosia to help with the burning feeling in our throats and on our skin from the noxious air.

"Let's just get out of this realm." I said. "Just the river Styx to navigate."

"We don't have any drachmas for the ferryman." Annabeth said.

"I think I can get across with my wind power." Thalia told us.

"I might be able to carry you across, Annabeth." I suggested.

"It's too dangerous, you can't even let one drop of Styx water touch you or me. But I think I know away across for me, I just have to believe.

She said nothing more and we climbed off the wall and approached the black river.

"Okay stand back." Thalia told us. We did as she ordered.

She faced away from the river, jumped in the air and did one of her sonic hand claps. A blast of wind tore at us, and we saw Thalia blasted way across the river. She turned in mid air and clapped again to slow her decent and landed lightly on the other side. It was the most amazing piece of wind related skill I'd seen from Thalia, and I was deeply impressed. I was going to be more impressed with Annabeth though, I had no idea how she was going to get across. She'd always had demigod battle reflexes, and her innate skill with puzzles and strategy and a deep knowledge of all things Olympian, but she had never had any, what others might call super human skills like Thalia and I did. I was wrong.

Annabeth gave me her rucksack and held out her arms and closed her eyes. She then bent down suddenly – no she was shrinking! I looked on in amazement as Annabeth Chase transformed herself into the symbol of her mother. She had become a beautiful Barn Owl. She flew up to my shoulder and nibbled my ear. I was speechless. I stroked her head and managed to croak out one line.

"I love you Annabeth Chase." The Owl looked at me for a long time and took off for the other side, landing on the shoulder of a joyous looking Thalia.

I did my thing and walked across the water, not letting it touch me, and joined the others. The owl hopped to the floor and Annabeth reappeared smiling but looking tired.

"That was AMAZING!" I shouted giving her another hug.

"My mom gave me some hints." She grinned.

"We can talk about this later, amazing as it was, but I'd like to get out of here now. Thalia said.

We nodded and entered Charon's Elevator and went up. The doors opened to bring us not to DOA recording studios, but to a large balcony overlooking green hills and sunny weather. The familiar form of Mr D was sat at a table with a bottle or two of wine.

"Peter Johnson!" He shouted, looking quite red. "Come, bring your friends and join me for a drink!"


	16. Chapter 16: I Don't Get a Hangover

**Chapter Sixteen**

**I Don't Get a Hangover**

I'd never liked Dionysus very much. Who would? He was my camp director for four years, never showed any interest in the campers or activities, and much to my annoyance never got my name correct. He was permanently annoyed at Zeus for his one hundred year sentence running the camp and that annoyance bled over to the campers. I had no idea how Chiron put up with him. He was stuffing his face now, his fat, ruddy cheeked cherubic face, and he was making me feel sick. I'd just come from a horrible experience in the Underworld, and I wasn't in the mood to see a fat-faced God dribble food down his front. I looked at the girls and they looked queasier than I did and they reluctantly sat down at the table.

"Where are we?" Annabeth asked.

"Napa Valley, my favourite place." Mr D answered between glugs of wine.

"Californian wine growing country." Annabeth explained to my puzzled look.

"Sit down! Eat Drink!" Mr D motioned to the food and wine.

"We've just come from the Fields of Punishment in the Underworld, and are most defiantly not hungry." I said to him. "How do we get out of this realm?"

"I offer you my food and drink and hospitality and this is the thanks I get?"

I ignored him. I couldn't remember the last time I had slept. Was it in Poseidon's realm? I felt shattered and I knew the Underworld would give me nightmares.

"We're so tired, Mr D, can we not sleep here?" Thalia asked.

Mr D sighed. "Of course you can sleep here, you have twenty four hours before the realm door opens." He said pointing the door on the other side of the balcony. "You only have to fulfil the conditions."

Annabeth raised her eyebrow at me. "Conditions, Mr D?" She asked.

"Yes you have to eat my food and drink my wine before the time is up. If you don't you will stay another day and the food and drink will accumulate." He waved his hand and a feast appeared on the table. "Twenty four hours starting now." Mr D vanished with and evil look on his face.

"Can we eat all this food?" Annabeth asked.

"Twenty four hours? Three hungry people, three maybe four meals? Just about." I estimated. "It's not the food I'm worried about."

"What are you talking about?" Annabeth asked, being less knowledgeable on eating strategy than she was on battle strategy.

"The wine, Annabeth, look at it! Twelve bottles! That's four bottles of wine each to drink."

"But over a whole day! We can space it out." She replied, testily.

"Think about it, Wise Girl. Have you ever drunk any wine before? No? I'd thought not. We've got no tolerance for it, even over a whole day we would be drunk and sick with that much, and that's before we get to the real problem!"

"Okay Seaweed Brain we have a problem what, is it?" Annabeth said, beginning to look worried.

"Do you want to go into the realm of Aphrodite stone drunk?" I asked.

Thalia covered her mouth with her hand and Annabeth looked horrified.

"Very good, Percy, I hadn't thought of that." Annabeth said quietly.

"We'll have to drink most of the wine now to get over the drunkenness before we move on."

I looked at the girls expressions with interest. Thalia looked unhappy at the thought of drinking the wine, but Annabeth had an unreadable expression on her face, but I thought I caught just a hint of anticipation on her face. I wasn't looking forward to it at all. I might be only fifteen, but my mum is quite liberal and I had tried all sorts of drinks, and wine was nowhere near the top of the list. I still had memories (or lack of them) of drinking too much of Paul's homebrew at Christmas and of Mum making fun of me after I threw up. But what choice did we have? I went and opened a bottle of Californian Rosé Zinfandel.

"Sit and eat! I know you're hungry and you don't want to drink on an empty stomach."

We were famished, and we tucked into the feast hungrily. Mr D had supplied pizzas, barbecue, fried chicken and cakes, and we washed it all down with wine. By the time we had finished two bottles, my head was swimming and Annabeth had got noticeably giggly. Thalia didn't look too steady either, as she returned from the bathroom.

"What's this?" She said when passing a huge covered square box. She lifted the cover off and squealed in delight. "It's a hot tub!"

I jumped up to check it out, after all spending time in a jacuzzi while drinking and being a son of the Sea God sounded awfully good. I removed the cover and got the hot water running, and returned to eat and drink some more, watching Thalia and Annabeth getting more and more drunk. They were getting quite excited about a bath in the hot tub, as was I.

I went over and checked the hot tub was full, started the jets and the surface of the water seethed in a loud bubbling mass.

"Ready to go!" I announced, wondering what response I'd get.

Both girls jumped up together, giggling and started to strip off. Annabeth fell over removing her boots, and Thalia couldn't un-strap her armour, so I went over to help. Armour came off, then boots and socks, jeans and t-shirts, leaving both girls in their bra and panties. They then began to strip me, and not gently, I might add. They ripped my armour off, pushed me down on a chair and removed my boots and socks and pulled my jeans off. I wondered how far they were going to go and prepared myself, just in case. Once I was down to my boxers, they thankfully stopped and we all got up to jump in, when Thalia tried to pull my boxers down. I grabbed them in time but the girls got a good view of my ass and were laughing uncontrollably. This was going to be a long day.

"Thalia! Behave yourself!" The girls laughed even more. I held my boxers firm until they had passed me. Then I pinged of Thalia's strapless bra from behind and it dropped into the tub.

"Percy! She giggled, holding her breasts. "I'm a huntress, behave!" I laughed until I saw the look on Annabeth's face. "Don't you dare try that on me, Seaweed Brain."

Thalia had retrieved her bra, and I caught a bit of side boob when she bent over. Thalia thought it was hugely funny, and jumped into the hot tub holding a bottle of wine, looking like she'd rather be here than anywhere else in the world. I was already concentrating on staying calm, as I didn't want to have a repeat of the boat incident. I looked at Annabeth and she looked fantastic wearing only a white uplift bra and skimpy panties she must have found in the shopping center. I jumped into the water before the girls could see how exited I was getting. The water invigorated me instantly, and had a side effect I was not expecting. It cleared my head completely. Water heals me you see, so I shouldn't be surprised that it cures drunkenness, but I was, and slightly disappointed too. I could never get drunk in a hot tub. I got over my disappointment pretty quickly as I realised I could watch the other two make complete fools of themselves. We all drank more wine and the girls were now noticeably drunk, and asking dumb questions drunk people like to ask.

"Who d'you fancy most at camp, Perce?" Thalia slurred.

"Annabeth of course!" I announced gallantly, nodding in her direction. Annabeth cheered and bent over to give me a big sloppy kiss. "So apart from me then who d'you thinks hot?" Annabeth asked me. I knew the question was a bit of a minefield and I was now quite glad I was sober.

"No one really, Rachel is too freaky, Silena is good looking but in that otherworldly Aphrodite way and Katie Gardner doesn't have a personality that I'm aware of. You two are by far the two hottest girls at camp, but Annabeth edges it because we've been to hell and back together, and frankly Thalia even if I chose you, it would be pointless as you are unavailable, maiden huntress. So Annabeth is the only girl I've seriously looked at. I've loved her for years." Annabeth smiled but looked sad at the same time.

"What about you, Annabeth?" I asked, now liking this sober-drunk thing much more.

"I don't really want to talk about it." She dodged.

"I was just perfectly honest with my answer, I think I deserve more than that."

She sighed. "I love Luke Castellan." My heart dropped out of my ass. Thalia looked at Annabeth in a wistful way, clearly thinking of the past. I shouldn't have been surprised, she'd been dodging commitment for ages, even after my declaration of love, but I was crushed, and it must have showed on my face. Thalia spoke up first.

"Don't be sad, Percy, I loved Luke too. He came to us at an impressionable age and saved us, he was strong, fearless and amazingly good looking. I still cry sometimes when I think of him."

"But he betrayed us and is now possessed by the king of the Titans!" I proclaimed.

"Kronos made him do it!" Annabeth choked.

"No Annabeth!" Thalia stated firmly, holding Annabeth's hands. "Kronos may have influenced him later, but Luke did many bad things before that. I have come to terms with that, and you must do too."

"I don't believe he can't come back!"

"He's irredeemable. He betrayed us, the camp and the Gods." I told her.

"You never liked him! You never knew him!" Annabeth cried.

"I never had the chance, Annabeth. He tried to kill me days after he met me, by giving me those flying shoes. If I'd worn them I'd be in the Tartarus now. Then he set a pit scorpion on me, and if it wasn't for the campers and the fact that water heals me, I'd be dead from that. Why should I like Luke Castellan? I never knew the Luke you did, just the stone cold killer, who tried to kill you and me and Thalia many, many times."

Annabeth was now in floods of tears now, and Thalia was holding her tightly.

"You have to let Luke go, Annabeth. If you don't you could lose something even more important."

Thalia whispered something in her ear, and she was wracked with sobs again. I stayed quiet and watched them for what seemed an eternity. Eventually Annabeth looked up, her eyes red and puffy and streaked with tears. She moved across and gave me a hug.

"I'm s-sorry Percy, I've been so horrible to you. Can you ever forgive me?"

I wiped the tears from her eyes, and smiled at her. "You have nothing to forgive, Annabeth Chase, we can't change who we are, in fact I wouldn't want you to change. I fell in love with Annabeth Chase, the person you are, not the person I'd want you to be." I kissed her on her forehead, and she buried her head in my chest and started crying again. I looked over to Thalia, and we both smiled as we examined each other's teary eyes. I don't remember her stopping crying, but she must of at some point, as I found her face in front of mine kissing me deeply. She caught me completely by surprise with her animalistic ferocity, it was so passionate it made my ears roar and skin tingle and we only stopped when Thalia parted us.

"Percy! Stop It!" Thalia spluttered.

I opened my eyes to find a dripping Thalia and most of the water from the tub, now on the floor. I must have agitated the water around and sent it out of the hot tub.

"You give helluva bloody kiss girl!" Thalia laughed at Annabeth, who I was overjoyed to see was finally smiling. She snuggled up to me, and put her head on my shoulder. "I don't deserve you seaweed Brain." I hugged her tightly and kissed her on her forehead.

"More food and wine!" Thalia announced loudly, as she jumped out the hot tub onto the wet floor. Annabeth and I joined her. I switched the water back on to refill the tub. I watched the girls open another bottle of wine. I had to pinch myself to make sure this was real. Thalia and Annabeth looked spectacular, Thalia was slimmer and athletically built, with almost a supermodels body, but with more muscle tone. Her white skin contrasting beautifully with her jet black short hair which was much neater than it used to be before she was a huntress. Annabeth on the other hand was curvier in the hips and bust and had a much darker tanned skin tone. They both looked beautiful marching about unconcerned about the skimpiness of their clothing, which was clinging to their wet bodies leaving very little to my imagination. I crossed my legs at the table to cover my arousal, and returned to the tub as soon as it had filled up.

"Look! Percy's back in the tub!" Thalia hiccupped. She and Annabeth had to hold each other on the way over and I got up to help them both back into the tub. They both had a huge glass of wine each, and were now drinking quite freely.

"So then Thalia. Back to the questions! What about you, who did you fancy at camp?" I asked her.

"Well, there was Luke of course, and Becks is quite hot too but the two hottest people at camp were unavailable. It's the reason I became a hunter." She drank the rest of her wine.

"Don' shtop there!" Annabeth squealed drunkenly. "Who were they?"

"You two of course!" Thalia said laughing out loud. I laughed at the revelation, but Annabeth looked stunned. "You became a hunter because of me and Percy? I wasn't with Percy!"

"Everyone at camp could see you two were mad for each other apart from you two! Aphrodite cabin had a sweepstake running for the last two years of when you were going to first kiss!" Thalia cried with laughter.

"So you decided Percy was out of bounds and you became a huntress?" Annabeth said, looking confused.

"No, Annabeth, you're not listening, Percy _and _you were out of bounds. I know what you to feel for each other because I fell in love with _both_ of you!"

Annabeth sat there with her mouth wide open. "You-you love m-me?"

"Ever so much, Annabeth." Thalia said, beginning to cry. "I'm attracted to inner strength, loyalty and integrity as much as looks and you two are in a different league to the rest." She sniffed drinking anther glass of wine.

Even I was beginning to cry now, It all seemed so sad. We all gathered in a group hug.

"So there you go, I love you two guys, and if your love for each other is as strong as mine for you two, then Aphrodite is no threat to us!" And with that she gave Annabeth a kiss on the lips. Annabeth's eyes opened wide and to my surprise she returned the kiss. Quite hungrily too. I didn't know what to think, but I assumed it was the alcohol talking, and also to my surprise the sight of them kissing had blood rushing in my ears. I found it more intoxicating than any bottle of wine. I moved in myself and hugged both of them. They pulled apart and Annabeth kissed me, and then to my delight Thalia kissed me too. Annabeth turned around for something and Thalia took this as a sign to kiss me again and she slipped her hand down my boxers and grabbed a hold of me tightly. I looked at her in surprise, but I could see all the wine was kicking in and she was quite far gone, and I grabbed her as she passed out to prevent her from slipping under the water. At this point I come to realise Annabeth hadn't turned around to get anything, she was hanging over the edge of the tub groaning and explosively throwing up on the balcony floor.

"Great! Now what!" I said to myself aloud.

I lifted Thalia up and carried her soaking, inert figure into the house, I found the master bedroom and willed all the moisture out of Thalia's underwear before placing her gently face down on the huge bed. I returned for Annabeth to find her insensible hanging over the edge of the tub. I wiped the mess from around her mouth and off her chest and carried her too to the bedroom. I did the same trick, drying Annabeth out and placed her down next to Thalia. She was already snoring. I returned to the outside balcony and used some of the tub water to clean the floor. I refilled the tub and grabbed the remaining six bottles of wine and proceeded to drink them all while sat in the tub so the alcohol didn't affect me, stopping only for the call of nature. It was getting dark now and I ate a little more food before returning to the bedroom. I thought of all the naughty things I could do right now, then felt immediately ashamed that I had thought of them. I could never take advantage of a drunken woman.

I laid down and hugged Annabeth, and whispered in her ear. "I love you Annabeth." And to my utter delight she mumbled back at me "I love you too Percy."

I wept. It was the first time she had told me that, and I felt like I could rule the world. I just hoped she remembered it in the morning. I settled down to sleep, figuring it was going to be a big day tomorrow, and our last realm! I was out like a light.

I dreamed I was in a deep red room, with all sorts of things on the walls. I recognised some stuff like handcuffs and whips and what I thought was a riding crop, but most of the stuff I hadn't seen before although I could take a good guess at their uses. I then noticed I was tied up at my feet, and my hands were tied up above my head, I couldn't move at all.

"You are near my realm, beautiful Percy Jackson." A sultry and familiar voice said behind me.

"Aphrodite." I assumed, since I couldn't turn around.

"Ohh, smart as well as sexy. I like that."

She pressed her breasts into my back and massaged oil into my skin, only at this point did I realise I had no clothes on. Electricity tingled over every part of my bare skin that she touched, and I was now breathing quite heavily. She ran her hand between my legs and started massaging my erection, and she stopped just before I thought I was going to explode in delight. She walked around so I could see her. She was a beautiful as ever, wearing only thigh high leather high-heeled boots. She walked over and grabbed the riding crop from its place on the wall, and walked back to face me.

"Are you ready to have you mind and body taken to new heights of pleasure, young demigod?"

"Errr-" Was all I could say before she whipped the end of my erection and by body exploded in pleasure, and again I woke up to find I'd made a mess of my boxers. Annabeth was watching me curiously.

"You okay, seaweed brain?" She asked looking a bit red.

"I'm good thanks Annabeth, how are you this morning, you were rough last night." Changing the subject handily, I thought.

"Not too bad actually, maybe Dionysus has an anti hangover enchantment on the place. Did you drink the rest of the wine? She asked.

"Yup."

"Wow!" She exclaimed. "Did we do anything embarrassing? I can remember up to crying about Luke."

"Nah, you and Thalia passed out and I carried you both to bed." I lied. "Where is Thalia anyway?"

"Eating breakfast. We've got about an hour to finish the food to open the door."

I gave Annabeth a kiss (which she returned!) and a smile and headed off to the bathroom to clean up. I met the girls on the balcony and helped them finish off the food. I was sort of glad that the girls had little recollection of the later events in the hot tub, but also a little bit disappointed. It was one of the best nights of my life. The door clicked open and we all got up to continue the quest.

"Just Aphrodite's realm left, and what can she do to us?" Thalia asked.

Annabeth and I didn't answer, but we did catch each other's eyes, both knowing each other had experienced a dream. Annabeth looked pensive, and I felt very nervous indeed, but we had to move on. We exited Dionysus' realm and entered what looked like a very posh hotel lobby. There was no-one around and we walked to the only exit, an elevator. As we got close, Aphrodite appeared next to the doors.

"Welcome to my hotel, you beautiful demigods, where you will learn to love yourselves and everything beautiful in this world. Before entering you must leave your spoils of war and all things non biological behind, for collection at the exit. You will not need them here. Anything you try to bring through will be disintegrated. Thank you for your cooperation. She vanished in a mist of perfume.

Thalia and I shrugged, and removed our armour and weapons and placed them in a box by the doors.

Annabeth just stood still, shaking.

"You okay, Annabeth?" I asked.

"You too don't understand do you?" She asked. Thalia and I just shook our heads.

"We can't take anything non biological."

"So what?" Thalia asked, getting frustrated now.

"Clothes are non biological." She said in a quiet voice.

Thalia and I looked at each other, but Annabeth raised her voice before we could say anything.

"We have to enter the realm naked!"


	17. Chapter 17: Is It Hot In Here?

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Is It Hot In Here?**

"It's true, we have to enter naked, our clothes will be disintegrated." She said to our stunned faces.

"Don't be ridiculous, Annabeth, If Aphrodite wanted us naked, she could ask us or just make us." Thalia argued.

I said nothing. I kind of wanted it to happen.

"Okay then, go through that door and see what happens!" Annabeth rebutted.

"No you go first, naked if you wish it!" Thalia hit back, getting angrier by the second.

"Hang on ladies, let's try an experiment shall we?" I broke in. I took a spare sock out of my bag, an old used one that desperately needed washing, and tossed it through the door and it vanished in a flash of flame and smoke.

"See! I told you so!" Annabeth cried.

"Well hoo-bloody-ray for the Wise Girl's brains. Well on you go, you first." Thalia said moodily.

"What? What do you mean me first? I'm not going first!" She said, turning bright red.

"You figured it out, you go first, I'm not going first!" Thalia said looking slightly scared.

I looked back and forth between the girls and finally got fed up. "Okay! You two shut up!"

Annabeth and Thalia stopped and looked at me. "For fuck's sake, what difference does it make huh? If we've all gotta get through this whole realm without wearing anything then were going to get very acquainted with each other's bodies, what difference does it make who goes first?" I asked the girls in a tone of voice that told them I didn't want or expect an answer. I breathed out loudly. "Okay, I'll go first." The girl's mouths dropped.

I may have looked confident for the girls, but it was all deceptive. Inwardly I was shitting bricks at the entire prospect of stripping off. But I also noticed a streak of excitement in the background, the same feeling I had in the hot tub when things were getting tasty. I could feel my heartbeat pounding fast in my ears as I started to remove my clothes in front of the girls. I removed my boots and socks, then my t-shirt and jeans leaving me just stood in my boxer shorts. Thalia was watching over her hands, which were now covering her mouth and nose, while Annabeth was looking at the floor smiling, shyly glancing up every couple of seconds. I didn't try to hide anything or turn around, I just dropped my boxers to the ground and stepped out of them. I relaxed as a great feeling of freedom washed over me, and looked at the girls. Thalia had covered her eyes, but she was smiling, and Annabeth was making a noise between heavy breathing and laughing, covering her mouth.

"Come on then! Look at me!" I ordered. "Get a good look, it's not going anywhere! Are you buddy?" I said looking at my now exposed cock." They were giggling away now.

I walked towards them and they both took a step back. "It won't bite!" I laughed. They looked at each other and cracked up with laughter, but they did have a good look.

"It's um, bigger than I thought it would be!" Annabeth said looking really embarrassed.

"Nah it isn't, seen it before anyway!" Thalia said with a wink.

"What! When?" Annabeth looked at both Thalia and me annoyance written on her face. Thalia thankfully answered.

"Well, when we were on that little boat in the Pacific, and you were asleep on him, he kinda popped out." She laughed. "That's why he jumped out the boat suddenly, he was so embarrassed, I've never seen anybody so red!" Even Annabeth laughed at this at my expense. I must have had a grimace on my face, because Annabeth looked away from my groin for a second.

"You look hot when naked and angry!" She said in a mock sultry voice. Thalia was still laughing away, and I was getting a little fed up. I grabbed a chair and sat down in front of the girls and leaned back.

"So? Who's next?" I asked, grinning like an idiot.

Thalia and Annabeth looked at each other, and they both looked giggly nervous, but it was Annabeth who plucked up the courage first.

"Okay, my turn!" She said in a shaky voice. She had her outer clothes off quickly, leaving her standing there with just her bra and panties on. She walked over to my reclining form while un-attaching her bra, and gave me a kiss while she removed it. She brushed her blond hair over my groin as she withdrew and turned around. She started running her fingers around the rim of her panties, and backing in between my legs. I put my hands on her waist as she gyrated almost in my lap, and it was too much for me, I got a big an a erection as I'd ever had. Thalia gasped as I stood straight up to attention, but Annabeth still had her back to me and couldn't see me. She teased her panties down and stepped out of them. Her ass was magnificent, I'd seen it before of course, but not from this close, and as she gyrated backward she bumped into something she wasn't expecting. She jumped up and turned around.

"Oh my god!"

"This is what you do to me Annabeth." I said, looking at my groin.

"It got so big! I can't believe it got so big! Is that normal?" She asked, unbelieving.

"Yep, that's normal." I said. Even Thalia came over for a closer look. They both looked like they wanted to touch it, but were a little bit afraid.

"Wow!" Annabeth said. Taking a step back.

"Anyway Annabeth, let's get a good look at you!"

She stood before me with her hands on her hips and a nervous smile on her face. Her rounded breasts were perfect, not too big, not too small, perfectly shaped pinkish brown nipples, now getting quite hard. Her waist slimmed down and curved out to her hips in a classic hourglass figure, and she had a neatly trimmed blond - brown triangle between her legs. I wanted desperately to jack-off right there and then, but somehow managed to restrain myself, and Annabeth looked like she was going to cry if I didn't say something soon.

"Oh, my god, Annabeth Chase, you are the most perfect woman I have seen in my entire life!"

She giggled nervously, but visibly relaxed. I got up and gave her a hug and a kiss. It was the finest feeling ever to feel Annabeth's bare breasts on my chest, my hands on her ass, and my cock rubbing up against her pubic hair. Thalia had to break us up.

"C'mon you two, we can't stay here all day."

"We have to strip you off first, Thalia!" Annabeth squeaked, as we moved over to her and started pulling off her clothing.

"Wait! Wait! I can do it!" She shouted, shrugging us off. "Annabeth, you sit down! Percy, stand back please! Don't want you doing any damage with that thing!" Thalia laughed, pointing at my crotch.

Annabeth sat in the chair, and I got even harder at the sight of her reclining in a chair with her legs slightly apart, but not for too long as Thalia blocked my view, doing her own lapdance for Annabeth. Annabeth giggled with delight as Thalia slowly stripped off for her as she did for me. I was standing on the other side of Thalia, and she giggled pointing to my erection which was pointing right back. She removed her bra and hung it over my cock and almost doubled over laughing. I sighed loudly, picked it off and threw it into the box. Thalia had smaller breasts than Annabeth, but they were no less wonderful, and she squeezed them together for me, while dancing for Annabeth.

"Do the last bit, would you Annabeth?" Thalia said, sticking her ass towards her.

Annabeth giggled and pulled down Thalia's panties and she stood up straight and looked me right in the eye.

"Well what do you think, Poseidon Boy?" She asked me, holding out her arms.

"You truly have a body worth of the daughter of the king of the gods! I find myself truly lucky to be in the same room as the two most beautiful girls I have ever seen!" I wasn't lying, but I still felt I had to be careful with what I said. Annabeth was a jealous type.

Both Annabeth and Thalia seemed happy with that. Thalia did a little pirouette and flashed her ass in my direction. Annabeth noticed something I'd already seen, but hadn't said anything.

"You're shaved! Why's that?" She asked Thalia.

Thalia looked down and shrugged, running her fingers over her bald pubic area. "I never used to be, it came with the maiden enchantment. Maybe Artemis wants to make us look younger or something. I was always too embarrassed to ask."

Annabeth jumped up and gave Thalia a hug, and Thalia surprised Annabeth, by kissing her on the lips.

"Thalia!" Annabeth spluttered. "What d'you do that for?"

"I-I'm umm-" Thalia turned bright red.

I jumped in to help Thalia out. "Annabeth, do you remember much about last night?" She shook her head, and Thalia looked at me curiously. "Thalia told us something last night." I said looking at Thalia, she looked scared but didn't stop me. "Thalia became a hunter because the two people she loved the most were unavailable. Me and you." I said pointing at both of us. Thalia looked mortified and Annabeth gobsmacked. She enfolded Thalia in a big hug.

"Oh Thalia! We've been friends for ages, why didn't you tell me?" Thalia was crying now on Annabeth's shoulder.

"It would have b-been to w-weird." Thaila spluttered out. "I-I mean to admit to your best friend that you've fallen in love with her, don't you think? And you had clearly f-fallen for Percy, even if you didn't know it yet."

"She told us in the hot tub last night?" Annabeth asked me.

"Yep, just before you two started snogging and then passed out." I told them, with an evil grin on my face.

"We didn't! Stop winding us up!" Annabeth admonished me.

"You did! I swear on the Styx! And you enjoyed it. You were very drunk though."

Annabeth looking angry and being naked was turning me on again.

"I enjoyed it did I? let's see!" She said to me angrily before turning and kissing a very surprised Thalia full on the mouth. Thalia kissed back hungrily and groped one of Annabeth's breasts.

I know Annabeth was trying to get back at me, but I wasn't bothered for a second, this was the hottest thing I had ever seen! I walked up to them and gave them a hug. Annabeth pulled out of her kiss looking breathless and stunned, while Thalia had the biggest grin on her face and she turned and kissed me. I looked at Annabeth, expecting her to look angry, but she just kissed me deeply instead. I pulled out of the kiss and stepped back from the hug.

"This is getting a bit too full on right now. I think we need to have a chat." I said.

The girls just looked at me, breathing heavily.

"Everybody pull up a chair." I said sitting down.

They looked at each other and giggled, and Thalia still looked like the cat that had got the cream, but they did pull up a couple of chairs and sat down.

"Close your legs please Thalia." I asked getting a front on view of between her legs and I needed a clear mind.

Thalia went red and closed up immediately.

"Okay. We have to get a few things straight. One, we have to control ourselves. Putting us three in this position is incendiary, and we don't want to do anything we'll regret later, agreed?"

The girls nodded.

"Right. First things first. Annabeth, will you be my girlfriend?" I asked her. I don't know why I felt braver when we were all naked, but I felt like I had so much more confidence than before.

Annabeth looked at me curiously. " Thought we already were?"

"So did I, but we never talked about it, so I was just confirming. Thank you for being my beautiful girlfriend! And I got up and gave her a kiss. She looked over the moon, and I must have as well, Thalia looked happy for us, but I know it must have hurt her a little inside.

"Right we are about to enter the realm of Aphrodite, naked as the day we were born, with emotions and urges we are not used to and can barely control. She could try all sorts of games with us and we must be prepared, do you agree?"

Annabeth looked impressed with my reasoning, but Thalia looked a bit confused.

"I'm not sure what you mean, Percy." She said, distracting me by mindlessly scratching one of her breasts.

"I mean, we need to set some rules. Firstly, if anything drastic needs doing, Thalia, Annabeth and I will need to do it, as we cannot risk your huntress enchantment." I told her. She looked sad, but reminding her of her huntress commitments seemed to bring her out of a shell.

"Yes, Percy, that makes sense."

"Annabeth, we maybe going out with each other, but we are stuck in this position with Thalia, and don't deny it, we both find her attractive." Annabeth looked at the floor and went red, but didn't deny it. Thalia beamed at me. "And Thalia, you have already admitted you like both of us, correct?"

She grinned and nodded.

What I'm trying to say is we don't know what is going to happen to us in regards to Aphrodite. Her realm may play with our memories and feelings, and we are all going to be spending a lot of time in close proximity, just like we are now."

"What are you trying to say Percy?" Thalia asked.

"He's trying to say, what happens in the realm of Aphrodite, stays in the realm of Aphrodite." Annabeth said. "Percy and I cannot expect each other to just ignore you and whatever situation we are in, and shouldn't get annoyed or jealous of each other with regards to you."

"That's right, thanks Annabeth." I said. "During this realm we will all stare at each other, touch each other kiss and hug each other and maybe more, and Annabeth and I cannot afford to let it get to us, just in case Aphrodite uses it against us. So essentially Thalia, you will be part of a threesome during this realm, we simply can't see it in any other way. Does everyone agree?"

Annabeth nodded and looked proud of my deductions in the heat of our near-lust and Thalia looked overjoyed and started crying.

I got up and hugged Thalia and held her tight. "This is going to be tougher for you than for us two, our huntress." I whispered in her ear. I turned around to Annabeth, who still took my breath away, and noticed that she didn't look annoyed at me hugging Thalia, and in fact was gently crying with her. I didn't know if Thalia could carry on with being an eternal maiden after this experience, and we hadn't even barely got started.

"It's going to be so hard." Thalia sniffed. "Two experience this with you two, and then go back to normal." She walked over to Annabeth, and hugged and kissed her. "Thank you for letting me into your life, Annabeth, even if it's just for a short time!" They hugged and cried, and I stood there thinking about never being able to understand the emotions of women.

"C'mon, you two, we can't stay here all day!" I told them.

They disengaged from their hug and wiped each others eyes.

"Thalia, your tiara." I pointed out. Her hand went up to her hair and felt the sign of a Hunter of Artemis.

"I feel wrong having to remove this." She fussed.

"Thalia, remove it or lose it." I said. She took it off and her hair sort of formed a spikey black mass that it used to be. I thought she looked even sexier.

Noises from the end of the corridor made us stop in our tracks, after all no one wants to be caught naked in public.

"There are people coming!" Annabeth shrieked.

"I guess Aphrodite is fed up of us staying here." I answered. "Lets go."

We made sure all our clothes and other stuff was piled in the box provided and we rushed through the doorway, not having a clue what to expect. In fact not much changed at all. We were still in the same hotel, or at least somewhere with the same decoration. The room was square with chairs and tables around the periphery and a square pedestal in its center. We looked around, confused, as there was no way out apart from the way we came in.

"Nice ass, Wise girl!" I said, getting a beaming smile from Annabeth.

"Nice cock, Seaweed Brain!" she hit back, making Thalia laugh loudly.

"Yes hasn't he just!" A voice said from behind us. Aphrodite walked past me and stroked my groin as she passed. My knees buckled and I almost climaxed.

"Welcome to my realm, you beautiful people!" She was dressed in a see through negligee, and high heeled shoes and nothing else, and as usual, she looked perfect. "Before you get to enjoy the fruits of my realm, I'm afraid you must be judged.

"Judged? By whom? Judged for what?" Annabeth asked.

"Judged for beauty of course, my little blonde Californian fox"

"I'm not Californian, my dad just lives there!" Annabeth said angrily, seemingly enjoying catching a god making an error. "Who are you to judge us?"

"I would be a perfect judge, little one, but as it happens I'm not going to judge you." Aphrodite smiled. "We've got to see if you've got the X-Factor to continue in my realm."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Annabeth responded.

"Feisty one aren't you! I can see why these two have fallen for you." Aphrodite walked to the center pedestal. "I think you shall go last Miss Chase. Mr Jackson, you first please."

I walked nervously up on to the pedestal, and before I could say anything the whole thing raised up and disappeared into the ceiling, lifting me up to some unknown destination. I had never been so nervous of the unknown, wondering where I was going to emerge, stark naked. I grabbed my crotch, having a bad feeling about what was going to happen. A circular door irised open above me, and light flooded through, and when the lift took me through the opening, my worst fears were confirmed.

I was on a stage, under spotlights, with four judges in front of me, and ten thousand teenagers cheered from behind them. To my horror, the judges included Clarisse La Rue, Chiron and my mum! And Simon Cowell led them at the end. And here I was thinking Aphrodite's realm was going to be enjoyable, only to have my worst nightmare force upon me, and it hadn't even really started yet!

"Welcome to Demigod's Got Talent!" Simon announced. "What's your name?"


	18. Chapter 18: Chase Doesn't Take Any Shit

**Chapter Eighteen**

**Annabeth Doesn't Take Any Shit**

"Your name?" Simon repeated. "You know, like your parents gave you when you were born." The crowd laughed at my expense. I wanted to cry with embarrassment, or to run anywhere but here, but I knew the rules by now and this was another test. I stood up straight.

"Percy Jackson, my name is Percy Jackson." I stuttered.

"And your parent is?"

"My dad is Poseidon, God of the sea."

"Well Percy, let's see what you've got." Simon said.

They wanted me to perform? Show what talents I've got? I didn't have a clue.

"I-I Don't understand."

Simon sighed. "This is Aphrodite's talent show, Percy, and you must show your talents."

"I have demigod skills, but I can't show them here." There was no water here.

"Your talents, Percy, just remove your hands."

I suddenly understood. They wanted to see my dick. They wanted me to display myself for all the baying hordes. I wanted to die there and then, and I couldn't imagine how Annabeth and Thalia were going to take this. I shut my eyes and held my hands aloft. I huge cheer erupted from the theatre along with a huge round of applause. I actually felt better having done it, and gave the crowd a turn and waved to them. Another scream.

"Well? Clarisse?" Simon asked.

"Ugly and deformed. He's too skinny, and he has a penis like a half eaten chorizo ring." Clarisse said grinning. The crowd booed her, which gave me some satisfaction. I seemed popular.

"Nice. Chiron?" Simon asked.

"The perfect demigod. One of the finest I've seen in three thousand years." He said proudly. The crowd cheered massively at this.

"Impressive! Sally?" Simon continued. I shut my eyes, not wanting to look at my mum.

"He's beautiful, strong, well proportioned and he has a lovely willy!" I cringed at hearing a person that sounded like my mum talking about my nethers. The crowd loved it though.

"I'm not decided yet. I think I'll get measurements. Stage Hand!" Simon shouted.

I looked around to find a naked girl walking towards me, and the crowd screamed again. I almost panicked wondering what they were going to expect of me now. I recognised her from TV, and it was someone I had always fancied, Miley Cyrus, and she looked good.

"Hi Percy," she whispered in my ear. "I've just got to take some measurements."

She bent over and put a tape measure by my cock. I shut my eyes and tried to think of disgusting things like snogging Clarisse.

"Five inches!" Miley announced. The crowd cheered.

"Now I have to measure it the other way, Percy." I was just about to ask what she meant when she bent down and started massaging me, and to my surprise, put me in her mouth. How much more of this could I handle! I was naked on a stage in front of thousands of teenagers and my mom, being sucked off by a naked Miley Cyrus. Life had defiantly taken a turn for the surreal. Miley's actions didn't take long to achieve the desired effect, and the crowd were going nuts. Miley measured again.

"Nine Inches!" Even Simon seemed impressed with this.

"Over three inches above the national average. Very impressive talents, Percy." Simon told me to the crowd's delight.

"Ok then, decision time, does Percy progress to the next stage?" Simon announced. The crowd were overwhelmingly on my side.

"Clarrise?"

"No!" Boos rang out.

"Chiron?"

"A most definite yes!" Cheers and claps all around.

"Sally?"

"YES!" The crowed are on their feet.

The crowd eventually silenced and tense music played as Simon decided my fate.

"I've seen a lot of demigods in my time, Percy." He paused. "But you Percy are up there with the best, Congratulations! You are through to the next round!" The audience jump to their feet and cheer and applaud as loud music kicks in. A door to my left opens and I don't waste any time. I give the crowd a quick wave and rush off as fast as my legs will take me. With one last act of defiance I hit all the judges in the face with the water from their drinking glasses.

I found myself in a sort of green room, a holding room for a TV show. It had drinks and snacks a huge sofa and a widescreen TV which was showing Aphrodite's rather sick 'Demigods got Talent'. I knew Thalia was up next, and was curious how she would handle the situation. I sat down on the sofa and waited for Thalia to make her entrance, only to be continuously interrupted by naked girls. Now, normally I would have loved this, but now I was going out with Annabeth I felt quite uncomfortable with this particular attention, and they were persistent. Miley came back in the room and sat down next to me.

"Hi Percy, did you enjoy the show?" She asked me.

"No."

"Not even this bit?" And with that she slid down and put me in her mouth again.

"Stop it please, Miley." I said to her pulling her head away from my groin.

"What's wrong? Don't you like me?" She said giving me a fake sad look. She still had a hold of me though and proceeded to deliver an excellent handjob. I tried to imagine it was Annabeth, but I knew it wasn't and it made me feel really bad.

"Stop it, Miley!" I pushed her away. She fell to the side of me on the sofa and spread her legs for me, showing me everything.

"Just this once, Percy, I won't tell anyone." She said, playing with herself.

"As much as I would love to, Miley, my heart belongs to someone else, so please close your legs, and leave me alone please." It took all my willpower to tell one of my teenage crushes that I didn't want to have no strings sex with her. She took it surprisingly well.

"Ah well, plenty of other fish in the sea!" She winked at me, and I almost didn't get the joke. She got up kissed me hard on the lips, shook her ass at me and left the room. I let out a huge sigh, of relief or sadness, I couldn't quite decide. I looked at the TV to see Thalia being raised onto the stage. I turned up the volume to see what would happen. She screamed and curled up into a ball. I wouldn't like to be the judges now, you take your life at your own risk by scaring a hunter into a corner. Thalia looked at the judges, and screamed.

"I won't have them fucking judging me! Let me out of here, right now. And I mean right the fuck now!"

"You haven't even told me your name!" Simon said.

"I'm Thalia, daughter of the fucking god of lightning, and I am seriously angry."

"We must judge you, Thalia, Luke what do you thi-" Simon was cut off as Thalia fired a lightning bolt at Luke and blew him off his chair.

"One down, Simon, two to go before I get to you, can I go yet?"

"I'd give her a six out of ten because-"

Thalia cut her off with a scream "A six! Zoe Nightshade, you never liked me!" Thalia summoned the lightning and cracked the desk in two, throwing Zoe through the air.

"Don't you fucking dare." She said, pointing to the stage bodyguards, and they stopped in their tracks. One of them advanced and Thalia fired a bolt into the ceiling bringing a spotlight crashing down right in front of the guard which stopped him in his tracks.

"And mom! I don't even want to speak to you!" Thalia released a blast of high speed air at her mom, blowing her ornate blonde wig clean off. The hugely vain Ms. Grace ran off with the humiliation.

"Okay, Simon! Am I worthy?" She said stood in front of him holding her arms out wide showing off her magnificence. The crowd cheered and applauded even more than they did for me, but Thalia ignored them, and thunder rumbled through the auditorium.

"I laughed and heard something behind me. I turned away from Thalia on the TV, only to see a blue haired woman, with big breasts right behind me. I was not surprised to find her naked.

"Katy Perry?" I enquired.

"Hello, Percy, I love your talents!" And with that she thrust my head between her massive tits.

She caught me by surprise and off balance, and we fell to the floor. She straddled me and put her knees over my arms, and held her pussy (which was also dyed blue) over my face. All I could see was between her legs and her massive breasts looming over me. What a day, I thought to myself, first seduced by Miley Cyrus, then raped by Katy Perry. What next?

"Come on then girls! I've got him!" She shouted. Miley came back into the room with Rihanna and Avril Lavigne, as expected, all naked. The question was why did I feel so bad with what should be the best experience of my life? But I knew the answer. I was saving myself for Annabeth Chase. I tried to struggle free but three of the girls had me pinned down and Miley was playing with my cock again. Katy sat on my face and I felt her wetness on me. I shut my eyes and mouth and held my breath. I could feel Miley sucking me off again.

"C'mon, Miley have you got him hard yet?" I heard one of the girls say.

"Just a sec-"

"GET OFF HIM!" A voice boomed.

"Why should we?" Katy asked

"Because I said so!" And I smiled as I heard the crackle of electricity. Thalia was here.

The women could not have got out of there any faster, leaving me with only Thalia.

"Thalia! Thank god! I can't sit down for a second without famous popstars attempting to gang rape me!" I ran to her and gave her naked form a huge hug and we kissed long and deep. We fell onto the sofa, and continued kissing. My hand made its way up to her breast, and her hand grabbed me down below. We were both breathing heavily and didn't want to stop, but we both came to our senses.

"Wow, Thalia, I'm so turned on right now, but this isn't right." I told her.

"You're right of course, you are Annabeth's boyfriend, and we should wait for her. But what we have just gone through would make anyone want to let of a little tension." She smiled.

We sat down to watch the TV. Annabeth was up next after all.

Annabeth's naked form was lifted up onto the stage looking every inch like an Amazon warrior. She had her legs planted apart, her hands on her hips and her chest thrust out. Her blonde hair was tied in a ponytail. She let the auditorium bask in her magnificence for about ten seconds before she acted. She sprinted to the security guard at the corner of the stage and put her foot on his throat, he gagged and tried to grab her foot. In one motion she stole his riot baton and roundhouse kicked him off the stage. She ran to the other side of the stage where three guards were rushing over. She flipped over into a cartwheel and kicked one guard in the face while breaking another's kneecap with the baton, she regained her footing and bent backwards to avoid a baton swing, before putting her arm over the baton and head butting the guard full on the nose. The guard went down in a shower of blood and Annabeth now had two batons, which she used on the guard she had initially kicked in the face to knock him unconscious.

Thalia and I were watching this with amazement. Annabeth was better than we ever thought. Probably better than she ever thought. We continued to watch her on TV.

The guards were more wary now. They reached for Taser guns and charged her. She batted taser barbs out of the air with a baton, and threw a baton with deadly accuracy into the face of the guard, dropping him instantly. She caught the taser barbs from another guard on her remaining wooden baton, grabbed the charge wires and pulled the taser gun out of the guards hands. She swung it around like a lasso and smashed the guard in the head with his own gun. The last guard grabbed her from behind, but she was sweaty, naked and hard to grab hold of. Annabeth smashed her head back into his, breaking his nose, when he loosened his grip she tripped him up, and wrapped her thighs around his throat until he passed out. She grabbed two tasers from his pocket and fired them at the judges. Luke and Clarisse got one in the head each and dropped to the floor, twitching. The other judge, Chiron clapped her, but left pretty quickly, bounding up the stairs into the audience. She ran towards Simon with determination on her face, and Simon threw his chair at her. Annabeth flipped through the air, caught the chair, knocked Simon over with it, pinned his neck to the floor and landed in a seated position on the chair, leaning over its back, slowly choking Simon beneath her. It all happened in one smooth movement and was one of the most amazing moves I have ever seen from any demigod.

"Do I pass?" The crowd had no arguments, they were going crazy for this naked warrior girl.

Simon had none either. "You're through. I'm through too." The door opened on the stage.

Annabeth climbed onto the stage and faced the audience. They cheered her and cheered even louder, when she transformed herself into an owl and flew into the exit.

"Now that's entertainment!" I said to Thalia, who was bouncing up and down with excitement.

Annabeth flew through the door into the green room and transformed back into herself.

Thalia and I ran to hug and kiss her, and we all had a laugh and a cry.

"How can I call you Wise Girl anymore? It's more like Hit Girl!"

"I wasn't going to let Aphrodite get to me by taking my dignity, so I took it back by force, trusting fully in my battle instincts for the first time in my life." Annabeth said. She had splattered of blood on her and she was covered in sweat and grime, but she'd never looked so beautiful to me. "What did you guys do?" She asked.

"Thalia blasted everyone with lightning, but I just let them judge me, and I walked off." I told her, not feeling up to the moment.

"That was probably braver than what I did, Seaweed Brain." She smiled at me.

"Thalia then got here just in time to save me from being gang raped by famous pop stars." I told her. "I turned down Miley Cyrus and she returned with her mates to try and have me by force."

"But you like Miley Cyrus, don't you?" Annabeth asked me.

"Yes, but I love you." I looked her in the eyes. She almost started to cry, so I hugged her tight.

"You gave up your teenage fantasy for me?" She whispered in my ear. I nodded.

"I love you Percy Jackson." She whispered, and kissed me. I was almost crying now, it was the first time she had told me to my face. We hugged for a long time, and I looked across to Thalia who was biting her bottom lip and wiping away tears.

"You two! It's too much emotion for one day!" She smiled, and we both gave her a hug too.

"You do know that thing with Miley was probably a test, a trap set by Aphrodite don't you?"

"Very good, little one, it most certainly was, which he passed with flying colours!" Aphrodite said walking into the room. She was stunning as always and naked apart from black stockings and a suspender belt.

"Why are you keeping us here?" Thalia complained. "The gods need us! We're short on time!"

"Time is not a problem, my sexy young wind godling, only four days have passed since your entry to the back door."

"But what's happening outside? We're stuck here, completely out of time and place, not having a clue what's going on!" Thalia ranted. "This is ridiculous as a back door to Olympus!"

"Hmm, okay. Charles is back at Camp Half-Blood, he took the dragon, you know and fixed it and it is now a camp protector. He has also consummated his relationship with my lovely daughter-"

"Aphrodite!" Thalia broke in. "Don't digress please."

"What? Sorry! Where was I? Oh yes, the mortal world. Tyson is under the water with Poseidon, I don't know what he is doing, still battling Oceanus I guess. Grover is seeing that sexy Dryad and trying to organise the satyrs, but they are too old and stuck in their ways. The camp is now on a war footing, but not immediately in danger, the Gods expect a Titan strike in the summer. Typhon is waking under Mt. St. Helens, and that is your fault, Jackson. The Giants still have the doors of Olympus shut, but the Gods don't need doors, so your time urgency is misplaced. As for the back door, it is not guarded or observed by the Gods, and is intentionally hard to stop demigods or even mortals from entering Olympus without the God's knowledge. None of the God's know much about the others realms, and they have left only the barest essence of their being here. Only Hera and I really pay any interest to the realms, and here you are in mine, the last of all. Pass through here and you can help us defeat the Giants and return back to your camp as heroes."

"Well I think it's a bit embarrassing-"Thalia started to say before Aphrodite touched her shoulder and Thalia dropped to the floor screaming and holding her groin.

"What did you do to her?" Annabeth screamed.

"Calm down, my gorgeous little creature, I gave her the 'O' Touch. She had an instant orgasm, no damage done."

Thalia was breathing heavily and her thighs were wet and her legs shaky.

"Would you like to try it?" Aphrodite asked us. We both shook our heads.

"No? Pity. Anyway, through there is a hotel room. Get cleaned up and have some food and a rest, because tomorrow I have some big plans for you three! I just can't wait!" She dissipated into thin air.

I now knew anything was possible in this realm, and we left the green room wondering what tomorrow would bring, and whether it would change our lives even further.


	19. Chapter 19: Lessons

**Chapter Nineteen**

**Lessons**

I took Annabeth's hand and we walked down the corridor, with Thalia shakingly following behind us. As we turned a corner, the corridor got darker and was lit by torches. It had erotic paintings and sculptures adorning the cold stone walls that now loomed either side of us. Annabeth was looking really uncomfortable, her nakedness maybe? She must have got used to it by now. Fear of what Aphrodite has prepared for us I would guess to be a more likely explanation. I wouldn't blame her if it involved more public nudity, but Annabeth handled that situation far better than I did. She didn't look nervous at all in front of all those people.

"You okay, Annabeth?" I asked her softly.

"No, Seaweed Brain." She said sternly. "I'm pretty fucking far from okay." I wasn't used to hearing Annabeth cursing, so something was definitely getting to her. I looked at her, waiting for an explanation. She looked at me and sighed.

"Why do we have to do this? The continual embarrassment and the nakedness make no sense. Surely the Goddess of love means more to people than just a few embarrassing practical jokes." Annabeth explained. I nodded in agreement.

"I mean, we could be battling monsters, trying to rescue who we love, or fighting out of love, and that would make perfect sense, but getting us to take our clothes off and parade in front of the public is not a great way to express or generate a feeling of love, and I'm scared to death at what she might make us do next." She said.

I looked at her naked body, and even dirty and speckled with blood and with her tangled matted blonde hair falling haphazardly over her breasts she looked beautiful. I wanted to disagree with her about what Aphrodite was doing, but had the realisation that I was already in love with Annabeth before this realm. Aphrodite was just making me lust rather than love. I wasn't scared of anything we had to do next, if it involved Annabeth, but I wasn't going to tell her that. My thoughts of doing things with Annabeth betrayed me physically by making me hard. It was impossible for Annabeth not to notice.

"I guess you're not so scared, Perseus." She said, glancing quickly at my groin, and then looking away.

"I'm scared of everything in this realm, Annabeth, maybe apart from you. Don't forget what I told you Annabeth, I love you, and seeing the girl I love like this- "I said pointing to her naked form. "-Will always make me do this." I pointed to my erection. A small smile tugged at the side of her mouth. "You're so sweet Percy, but you've got a one track mind!" We both laughed and she looked a bit happier, so I felt happier too. I looked behind us to Thalia, she still looked shaken by her experience with Aphrodite, but at least she was walking properly now. And she looked good, really good. It was like the touch of Aphrodite had made her look perfect. Perfect hair, perfect skin, subtle makeup and a healthy glow, even Annabeth noticed.

"Thalia, you look amazing." Annabeth told her, beating me to it for which I was quite glad.

Thalia beamed. "I do? I must admit I feel really good. What she did to me back there, I've never felt anything like it, and I thought my body was going to explode in joy! For a few seconds I would have done anything to feel that again." She said dreamily.

Annabeth grabbed her hand. "C'mon Wind Girl, let's get to this hotel room."

We entered a square room with a door on the opposite side, and the doors behind us closed trapping us in the room.

"I guess we can't go back that way." Annabeth stated the obvious.

Thalia tried the other door but it refused to open. "We're stuck!"

There was a note on a small side table by the door. Annabeth read it out to us.

_A touch of Poseidon is what you need,_

_The door will open with his seed._

"The touch of Poseidon! That's me!" I touched the door but it wouldn't open. I looked at the girls and Thalia looked gleeful but Annabeth looked troubled. "What?" I demanded.

"The door will open with your seed, Percy!" Thalia laughed.

"My what? What's my seed?" I had no idea.

"Your semen, Percy." Annabeth said quietly going bright red.

"Oh." I looked back at the door as a shot of electricity shot up my spine. I must have gone bright red. I was going to have to masturbate on the door. With Thalia and Annabeth watching. I was so nervous I turned into Mr floppy.

"I guess I have to do my thing on the door then." I said nervously.

"No Percy, you don't." Annabeth said almost too quiet for us to hear.

"Would you please explain yourself, I'm nervous enough as it is!" I asked her.

"Look at the door! There were two hand prints with a trident in the middle at about head height.

"Your hands have to be on the door." Annabeth said, now looking at the floor.

It finally clicked for me. One of the girls was going to have to do it for me.

"Go for it Annabeth! He's your boyfriend!" Thalia laughed. Annabeth looked hesitant, and she looked at me. I nodded, and turned around and put my hands on the door. The girls couldn't see me smiling, but I was going to enjoy this. Annabeth walked up behind me and pressed against me. I felt like I could feel every pore on her skin. I shut my eyes and took a deep breath. She put her hands on my hips, and slowly moved her hands around my waist. To my surprise she suddenly pulled away, and backed off.

"What's wrong?" I asked her. She looked stricken, almost crying.

"I'm just not ready for this! God damn you Aphrodite, forcing me into things like this!" She started crying. Thalia and I sat down next to her and hugged her.

"I've always wanted it to be right! At the right time! At the right place! With the right person!" Annabeth sobbed. I looked at the floor feeling rejected. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and put her hand on my face. "Oh Percy, it's not you, it's me, I'm just not ready for this! I'd rather fight a Chimera naked right now, but trust me, Percy you are the right person!" I gave her a long kiss, and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I understand, Annabeth, I really do, we are quite young to go through such a powerful emotional and physical time with no experience whatsoever. How do we get through now?

Annabeth looked at Thalia. Thalia nodded. "Are you sure, Annabeth? He's your boyfriend."

"It's okay, we said this might happen, and there will be no jealousy or anger from me. Are you okay with it? Will it affect your status as an eternal maiden? Annabeth asked.

"This quest already has affected me, but my virginity is safe, so my immortality is too. Artemis will hate what has happened here though. As for opening the door, it's okay with me if it's okay with Percy." I nodded at them.

"I've got to warn you though, I've never done this before!" Thalia told me with a smile.

"Don't worry, it's never been done to me before, so I can't make any comparisons." I told her. "You sure?" I looked at Annabeth. She nodded and smiled grimly. "Go for it."

I put my hands on the door again and Thalia hugged me from behind, pushing her breasts hard into my back. She wasted no time in reaching around, grabbing me and thrusting her hand back and forth.

"Ow!" I grimaced.

"Sorry, Percy!"

"Too hard! Loosen your grip!" She did so but it was still uncomfortable. I made noises that told Thalia that she was discomforting me.

"I'm sorry, Percy! I've never done this before!"

"Don't worry Thalia, we'll get it right. First things, slow down, it's not a bicycle pump!" She let a nervous giggle escape. I adjusted her hand on me for a better fit and grip and slowly took her through the motions. "Got it?" I asked her. I could feel her head nod against my back. She had it now, and was thrusting back and forth like a professional and it felt good, really good. I looked over to Annabeth, and she stood up smiling and grabbed her boobs as a joke. Watching Annabeth naked was sure to make me climax fast, along with the fact that I had been teased and horny for ages without being able to release any energy. And sure enough I felt the orgasm rise within me, and had to hold on to the door tight to prevent myself from falling over. Annabeth gasped with her hands over her face as I screamed out loud and squirted on the door over and over again. The door audibly unlocked and opened and I fell on my knees breathing heavily.

"Blimey, Percy! Does that much always come out?" Thalia asked.

"Not usually." I said breathlessly. "I have been unbelievably turned on over the last few days, I needed that release." I got up and gave Annabeth a hug first."

"Ew!" She pushed me away, touching the sticky residue I'd left on her belly. "That's disgusting!"

Thalia almost fell over laughing, wiping her hand on her own belly to get rid of the excess she had collected.

"Nice one Thalia, that was wonderfully done! I told her. She beamed.

"Anytime you need a hand job to get through a locked door, I'm your demigod! Unless Annabeth wants to do it of course."

"Thank you Thalia, for doing that for me." Annabeth said.

"That's a first! A girlfriend thanking another woman for wanking off her boyfriend! Priceless!" Thalia laughed again. Even Annabeth smiled at that one.

We walked into a small hotel suite. It was dominated by the double bed and there were no windows. There was some food and drink on the dresser and a door that let into a bathroom with a large shower unit. The door shut behind us.

"Welcome to our prison!" Annabeth sighed. "I'm gonna have a shower."

She wandered into the bathroom and turned on the water. Thalia sat on the bed and started eating, she looked famished. I wasn't hungry, I'd eaten in the green room. I went to join Annabeth in the shower.

She smiled at me as I walked into the huge shower with her. It was steaming hot and felt wonderful. I had to will myself to get wet. I helped myself to shower gel and started washing myself, but I couldn't help but look over to Annabeth. I put my hand on her shoulder and started to wash her back for her. She groaned with pleasure, so I continued down her body and massaged her ass and legs. I then stood up again and hugged her from behind, reaching my arms around and massaging her breasts. She looked around at me, about to say something, but stopped herself, instead she just closed her eyes and moaned. I started having fun by firing jets of water at Annabeth and she yelped in delight at being hit from unexpected angles, I moved my hands down to her pubic hair, but she grabbed my wrist and pulled it away.

"Not yet, Seaweed Brain."

She washed me all over, but didn't touch my groin area at all. It was almost like she was afraid of it. My thought processes were stopped by Thalia entering the shower.

"Hi guys! Can I help with anything?" She smiled.

"No thanks, Thalia, I was just leaving, You might want to finish Percy off though." Annabeth said, going immediately red when she realised what she said.

"I did that ten minutes ago, Annabeth, I'm sure he doesn't need doing again." She winked at me.

"I meant washing!" She stormed out of the bathroom.

Thalia wasn't scared of me at all. She washed me all over paying close attention to my cock, giving it quite a long scrub. I did the same to her, running my hands all over her body and between her legs.

"Careful there sport." She said. "Nothing is allowed inside me." I gave her a quick kiss and left the shower and grabbed a towel. Just my luck, I thought to myself. I'm stuck in the realm of Aphrodite with do beautiful naked girls and one is scared of sexual contact and the other cannot have sexual contact.

Once we were all showered and dried. We ate some of the food that was left for us and climbed onto the bed. I found myself in the middle of the two girls.

"Annabeth? Thalia spoke up.

"What?"

"You can't go on like this."

"Like what?" Annabeth gave Thalia a confused look.

"Being scared of being intimate with Percy." Thalia told her. I cringed, I was stuck between them.

She gave me a sharp look. "I don't know what you mean."

"You're not comfortable with touching him, or being touched yourself."

"I don't think it's any of your business!" She snapped, looking scared.

"Of course it's my business, Annabeth, if you don't get comfortable with Percy soon, I will have to do anything required for you, and you know the consequences of that!" Annabeth looked even more scared.

"What's wrong, baby?" I asked her.

"I've never talked about it." She said quietly. We said nothing and just looked at her, waiting.

"Okay." She composed herself. "When I ran away from home, you and Luke found me."

"I remember." Thalia told her.

"I hadn't just run away when you found me, I was taken in by a young couple, a security guard and his girlfriend, they gave me food and shelter." She told us, her voice beginning to quiver.

"What I didn't know then, that I know now, is that he was an incubus demon. He was in human form, but was a demonic sexual predator, his girlfriend was just his current victim. He gained energy by having sexual intercourse with her until she would eventually wither away to nothing. She was already weak, when they took me in, and she clearly had no idea what he was. I guess he was attracted to me because I was a demigod."

"My god Annabeth! You were seven years old!" Thalia exclaimed, clearly upset. I was shocked to the core, and I wasn't looking forward to hearing the end of the story.

"It didn't matter how old I was to the incubus, he wasn't human, but it did matter that I was the daughter of a Goddess, he would get ten times the energy from me. He worked on me slowly, after all, his girlfriend was still alive and would be for a while yet, they can only have one victim at a time, you see. He started by watching me in the shower, and walking past me naked so I could see everything. I tried to tell his girlfriend what he was doing, but she was too far under his spell. Incubus' have a very powerful effect on weak minded women, but he had no effect on me. Anyway, it got worse. He would touch me in inappropriate places and force me to touch him and hold him."

Annabeth was crying now and Thalia and I were holding her hands and trying to be strong for her. It was difficult.

"I'm still my mom's daughter though, I know how to win a battle, and one day when he decided to masturbate on me, I grabbed the arrow through the heart brooch my father gave me and stabbed him in the balls."

Thalia and I looked at each other on amazement. "My god, Annabeth he must have gone nuts!" I said holding my balls in empathy.

"He most certainly did not. As it happened, my mom must have guided me, the brooch was celestial bronze, a gift from Athena to my father. In later years I did some research and found out that an incubus' weakest point was his testicles. So when I stabbed him there, even with a tiny bronze pin, it disintegrated him. I used my gifts, even though I was only seven, and had no idea I was even a demigod. I called an ambulance for his girlfriend and ran away. I met you and Luke the next day."

Thalia was speechless.

"So maybe, you can understand if I've been a bit nervous over sexual contact." Annabeth said wiping away her tears. I held on to her tightly, and she clinged on to me like she was going to fall off a bridge.

"I'm so sorry Annabeth I had no idea!" Thalia cried.

"Don't worry Thalia, you haven't done anything, I've never mentioned it to a soul. It's caught up with me over the last two days, and I had no idea it still had so much power over me until I saw Percy naked." She told us. I blushed. "I've been trying to overcome it, but I will need your help."

"Anything!" Thalia and I said simultaneously.

"I want to have an orgasm. I've never played with myself, I've always felt too disgusted. I want to be comfortable with my own body, before I can try with other people."

"Percy, you're up!" Thalia said.

"Me? I've got no idea how to give an orgasm!" I complained.

Thalia adjusted her body, brought her knees up, opened her legs and presented herself to us. I immediately got hard at the view, and had an almost overriding urge to stick it in her.

"Don't be scared, you two, get a good look." Thalia said, displaying herself and spreading her lips. She pointed out all the bits, like the labia, clitoris and vagina and where a woman was sensitive and how they like to be touched.

"C'mon, Percy, try it on me first then we can move on to Annabeth."

I knelt by her side and rubbed her between her legs.

"Too hard, too fast." Thalia told me in a scholarly voice. "One finger will do, circular motions around the clitoris. Penetration is not necessary, so don't try it."

I followed her instructions and she was soon purring away, until she got very wet, arched her back and screamed. I stopped, and she grabbed me. "Don't Stop!" She shouted. I resumed and she screamed again, then she lost her voice and squeaked. "Okay, okay! Enough!" I stopped. Thalia lay there panting away. "Okay, you've got the idea!" She laughed, we have to try Annabeth now!"

"I'm not sure now!" She giggled nervously.

Thalia laid Annabeth back on the bed, and pulled her legs apart.

"I'm not sure about this, Thalia." Annabeth wimpered.

"You must relax, Annabeth, clear your mind and concentrate on your bodily sensations." Thalia told her.

She looked fantastic, lying there with her legs apart, and I noticed with some fascination that her blonde pubic hair had a grey flash in it like her hair. I had the grey in my hair too from holding up the sky, but not down there. I guess she held it longer. She had her eyes shut and Thalia was gently massaging her nipples. She nodded at me, and I lay down by Annabeth and touched her gently between the legs. She whimpered at my touch and I withdrew my hand.

"Don't stop, Percy. She must overcome her fears."

I started again, being as gentle as I possibly could. She tensed again, but I kept going and finally she relaxed into it and started to moan appreciatively. Her nipples hardened and her chest flushed as I continued to stimulate her. It was going to take a lot longer than Thalia. Her breathing got more rapid as I began to massage faster, and her hips tried to move all over the place but Thalia held her down.

"It's too much!" She screamed. Thalia mouthed at me to keep going, so I did, and Annabeth started to writhe around crying out repeatedly. She then became very wet and shook violently all over, her voice being lost completely. She was bathed in sweat and was crying. I stopped, and gave her a hug. She hugged me harder than I ever thought was possible.

"It's so- so intense!" She managed to croak out, completely out of breath.

I was a little bit jealous of her, this was something I could never experience.

"I need a shower!" She laughed. I helped her up and took her back to the shower and climbed in with her. She could barely stand as I washed her all over. Her legs buckled as my hand reached between her legs, and I had to catch her.

"Percy! It's too sensitive down their right now!" She laughed. She started washing me, but this time when she got to my erection, she hesitated and tentatively put her hand on it. She looked me in the eyes and gave me a heartbreaking smile.

"I can do this." She said to herself more than anyone else.

She explored me. She played with my balls, and moved up my shaft to play with the tip. Like with Thalia I had to show her how to do it properly and she started to give me a soapy massage. I thought Thalia's attempt was good, but Annabeth must have been paying attention, because this was the best feeling ever. Like earlier, I didn't last long, and Annabeth, being in front of me took the brunt of the ejaculation on her chest. She laughed and fingered the grey substance around her boobs before washing it off.

"That wasn't too bad was it?" She asked me nervously.

"Better than I could do for myself!" I told her. "It was wonderful!"

She gave me a beaming smile and we climbed out and dried each other off.

We went out to tell Thalia of our shower adventure, only to stop dead in our tracks. Thalia was not there. Instead, we were treated to the smiling naked form of Luke Castellan.


	20. Chapter 20: Thrill Ride of Love

**Chapter Twenty**

**Thrill Ride of Love**

It's the sort of situation you never expect to happen, you know? Being face to face with your sworn enemy and not having a stitch on. Unsurprisingly, Annabeth gathered her wits first.

"What the fuck are you doing here? Where's Thalia?" She shouted at Luke, covering herself, self consciously with her arms. Luke looked like he did when I first met him, only four years older. He was taller than me, and more muscular than me, but I tensed myself anyway, ready for any action that might be needed.

Luke gave a startled look. "Thalia? She's here?

"Don't give me that shit, Luke! What have you done with Thalia?" Annabeth screamed.

"I honestly don't know what you are talking about. I haven't seen Thalia."

"How did you get in here?" I asked ready to pounce on him.

"The door was open. Stay calm Jackson, I'm here to talk, and you couldn't take me anyway."

"I've beaten you before!" I sneered at him.

"Only with your sword and the help of daddy, none of which you have here, so calm down and listen." Luke said with a calm voice. "You look beautiful by the way, Annabeth." Annabeth went bright red with embarrassment, and I went red with anger.

"You leave her alone!" I could barely control myself. The thought of Annabeth naked in front of him!

"I won't harm a hair on her head, Jackson, now are you going to hear me out? Or are you just going to keep shouting? I promise to leave you two if you just listen to me."

Annabeth put a hand on my shoulder. "Let him talk, Percy." I looked at her with amazement and a little annoyance, I mean, this guy tried to kill us many times over. "She seemed to understand my look."What choice do we have? Hear him and he'll leave, if he doesn't will fight him together."

"Go on then, explain this if you can." Annabeth asked him.

"I feel as bad as a person can feel right now, Annabeth. I'm a slave, and I don't know how to get free." Luke almost looked like he was going to shed a tear.

"Kronos has you as a slave?" She asked him

"He's been controlling my actions since six months before the lightning bolt incident."

"But not now?" Annabeth scoffed sarcastically.

"No. Since I entered the back door, I have been myself for the first time in nearly five years, and I hate what I have become!"

"I don't believe you!" She told him angrily.

"Please, Annabeth! It's true, I couldn't lie to you!" Luke pleaded

"You've done nothing but lie to me for years! I loved you Luke!" Annabeth cried. I didn't like where this was going, so I tried to change the direction of the conversation.

"How did you know about the back door?" I demanded.

"You have a spy in the camp, I was told everything." Luke said, sitting on the bed with his head in his hands.

"And how did you get through the realms on your own?" I continued.

"It seems like the gods are not paying attention, and the realms had not been reset after you passed through, traps were already sprung, puzzles already solved, and doors were already open. Flying shoes help immensely. Most realms I walked through in minutes, the realms of Zeus, Ares and Athena caused me the most problems. Until I got here of course, where I was stripped naked, had my weapons removed and was judged whether I looked good naked or not by a crowd of screaming teenagers!"

"And why exactly are you here?"

"Kronos led me here to get into Olympus and kill the Ophiotaurus that's kept in the throne room."

"Why the hell are you telling us that? You know we'll try and stop you!" Annabeth asked.

"Well I don't want to do it now do I? Now I'm myself, I just wanted to find you, Annabeth!

"Me?" Annabeth recoiled.

"I love you, Annabeth, you're my family!"

I was incensed. "You join with our enemies, repeatedly try to kill us, and expect us to trust you and take you back like nothing happened?"

"I need to speak with Annabeth alone." Luke pleaded.

"You haven't got a Hades chance of that!" I pronounced. I was glad Annabeth seemed to agree with me. Luke stared thumbing a small bag hanging around his neck. I have no idea how I didn't notice it before.

"Before you ask this necklace is made of living seaweed, which is why I was allowed to pass through the realm with it. Within it I have some teleportation pearls give to me by Hestia, I can get us out of here, Annabeth, and I need you, only you can help me break the Titan's curse over me." Luke said, taking out a pearl. It was redder than the ones I remembered.

"Don't listen to him Annabeth!" I shouted angrily.

"Luke, I can't-" Annabeth started to say as Luke hurled a pearl at her. It struck her head and vanished in a puff of pink gas, and Annabeth dropped to the floor unconscious.

"You fucker! What did you do!" I screamed, jumping to hit him. Luke didn't even move as I pounded him with everything I had. He started laughing.

"Is that the best, you've got, Fish Boy?" He sneered. I kicked him in the head.

"You can't hurt me, Jackson, I bear the curse of Achilles. You could have every weapon in the god's armoury and you couldn't defeat me right now." Luke laughed. I stopped hitting him, and sat on the bed breathing hard.

"Why bother our quest? If you want the Ophiotaurus, why stop us from our quest?" I asked him.

"Why not? Kronos doesn't care about the Giants, they are our natural allies. And the thought of getting one over on you, and finding a naked Annabeth was too much to resist. Anyway, enough of this, I need to talk to Annabeth alone, which will also be a pleasure, because she has grown up a bit since I left. Magnificent tits don't you think?"

If Luke wanted a reaction from me, he got it. I jumped up and kicked him in the nuts as hard as I could. He didn't move a muscle, and then grabbed my leg spun me around and pulled his arm around my neck and started to squeeze.

"I could kill you now, Percy Jackson. You know that don't you? All those times you defied me, made me look weak, I hate you for that. But Kronos wants you to live out the rest of eternity seeing what he does to the world, then having you killed and tortured forever in his version of the Underworld. You've seen it, haven't you? The Underworld? Nasty isn't it? Kronos will take it from Hades and twist it into his own version which will make Hades' hell look like Sesame Street. Then he will create a section just for you to make sure all your worst nightmares come true over and over again, while I become an Immortal and live forever. Any Questions?"

"At least I won't have to live forever with a small cock like yours!" I choked out defiantly. The pressure on my neck increased and I stared seeing stars before the blackness overcame me.

I opened my eyes to find myself sitting on the edge of a swimming pool, in what looked like an ancient Roman bath house. I couldn't remember how I got here or what I was doing. Someone was swimming towards me, it was a woman by the looks of it. She stood up in front of me, fully naked, just like I was.

"Hello again, Percy Jackson."

"Aphrodite!" I splutted, getting an instant erection. It was impossible not to when she was around you.

"Pleased to see me I see!" She chirped happily.

"How the hell did I get here!" I asked, sounding very confused.

"Oh, you're not really here, Percy! You're dreaming of course!"

"This is a dream? I don't remember going to sle- Annabeth!" I shouted as I finally remembered.

"Yes, your love! Luke has her now. You must go on a quest for love! It's so romantic!"

"A quest for love?" I asked, even more confused.

"Oh yes. You can't let that nasty son of Hermes do anything with her that will let him get out of this realm! You must go after him."

"I can't stop Luke! He bears the curse of Achilles!"

"Ah, Achilles! A great lover don't you know! And he died at Troy! The site of my greatest Triumph!" Aphrodite said looking wistful.

"Aphrodite!"

"Sorry Percy got lost in nostalgia there. You can't beat Luke physically by there are other ways to beat him, my sexy young demigod. You will find the path, and I guess that spinster girl will help you."

"What Thalia?" I asked, not having a clue what she meant.

"Yes her, the one who abandoned love. Such a tragedy!" Aphrodite threw her hand in the air. "Still they can't get far in this realm, so you'll be able to catch them. One thing, water counteracts Hermes' sleeping pearls and don't forget the check the wardrobe!"

"Okay, thanks. How do I wake up! I asked her.

"I hoped you were going to ask that!" She moved forward and kissed me full on the lips and then moved down my body until she enveloped me in her mouth up to the base. I didn't have a chance, I orgasmed immediately and my eyes fluttered open and I lay on the floor of the hotel room holding my groin.

I Stood up and looked around. The hotel room was empty and the door was open. Luke had taken Annabeth! My heart started pounding, and I almost panicked before I remembered the dream. I can catch them with Thalia's help, but where was she? I checked the wardrobe like Aphrodite told me and there she was, sleeping. I lifted up her naked form and put her on the bed.

"THALIA!" I shouted, shaking her vigorously. Nothing happened. She must have been knocked out by Luke's sleeping pearls. I picked her up again and carried her to the shower and held her against me and turned on the water. Her eyes fluttered open straight away and she held on to me tightly.

"Percy! How did I get in here?" She asked me before kissing me.

I pulled out of her kiss reluctantly. "Luke was here."

"Luke!" Thalia exclaimed. "What was that asshole doing here!"

"He's kidnapped Annabeth, and he wants to get to Olympus to kill the Ophiotaurus."

"And you didn't stop him!" Thalia said accusingly.

"What could I do? He knocked you and Annabeth out and he is now indestructible, he's swum in the Styx. He choked me to unconsciousness." I told her, explaining to her everything that happened.

"I'm sorry Percy, I shouldn't have doubted you. I was shocked." Thalia gave me a tight hug, which felt wonderful under the shower of water. "We have to find her quick, god knows what they would have to do together to get through some of the realm."

I paled at the thought of Luke having his way with my girlfriend. "We've got to go!"

It's not like we had to get our stuff or anything. I dried us both by willing the water out and we rushed out of the hotel room. The corridor led to an elevator with only one button, and I stabbed it furiously.

"I don't know how to beat him." I told Thalia as the elevator descended.

"We'll think of something." She answered back as the elevator doors pinged open.

Thalia almost screamed and covered herself up. I jumped to the side of the elevator and peered around the corner. I recognised the place, I'd been here with Annabeth and Grover, but it looked completely different. It was Waterland, and it was open and very busy.

"We can't go out there, Percy! We're naked!" Thalia hissed at me.

Before I could respond, a fat looking family barged their way into the lift, eating ice creams and turkey legs. They paid no attention to our nakedness, only our presence.

"You using this elevator or what?" The fat dad asked.

"Just getting out, thank you." I told them, and pulled Thalia reluctantly out into the waterpark.

To our amazement, nobody noticed us. They noticed that there were two people walking around the park, but no one mentioned to us or looked at us in anyway different to anybody else.

"This is too weird." Thalia said. "Walking around naked and nobody notices."

"I guess it's the mist at work. I'm not complaining!" I laughed nervously. "Look at that ride over there! It looked like we've been on it!"

Thalia looked in the direction I was pointing. "Dude Where's My Swimsuit Ride! That's actually quite funny! But seriously Percy, where do we go from here?"

"I've been here before, Thalia, and the only place I can imagine to go with Aphrodite pulling the strings is the Thrill Ride O'Love."

"Sounds awfully exiting!" Thalia said sarcastically. "Please lead the way."

We walked past the signs for the ride and under a golden arch. The same Romeo and Juliet theme seemed to be running through the ride design as I remembered from before. When we reached the top, we didn't have long to wait before a swan boat came around. I climbed in the front and Thalia straddled me from behind putting her arms around my waist and hugging me tightly. I wanted to enjoy the situation, but Annabeth's troubles kept my mind from doing so. As the ride set off. Thalia mischievously moved her hands down and held on to me making me hard. The ride then suddenly took us into a dark tunnel and we dropped down a steep slope. I would have laughed if it wasn't for Thalia screaming in my ear and very nearly ripping my manhood off as she held on so tightly.

"Thalia!"

"Wow, I wasn't expecting that!" She said breathlessly

"Thalia! Your grip!" I winced.

"Sorry Percy! I wasn't thinking!" She said letting go of me.

"As much I like your attentions Thalia, I think we should hold off until we can help Annabeth." I said rubbing my groin.

"Sorry, Percy. You're right of course, I wasn't thinking. But I can't help myself with you at the moment."

"You can't have me Thalia, You're an eternal maiden." I told her directly. "And I'm going out with your best friend."

"I know, Percy." She started crying. "It's wrong of me to do that to you, and I'm trying so hard to hold back, but I would have turned down becoming a huntress for you Percy." I gave her a hug and she buried her head in chest. I stopped the boat from moving any further, not wanting to drop down a chasm right at this time.

"Oh Thalia. I don't know what to say. I love you too Thalia, but I also love Annabeth and I'm with her, I think I always will be." I whispered to her. "I'm lucky to have the world's two most wonderful girls love me." Thalia cried even more.

"I convinced Annabeth not to become a hunter you know." She told me.

"I never knew that."

"I knew she was falling for you, even if both of you couldn't see it. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. If Annabeth had become a hunter, I would be free to go out with you. But in the end the prophecy decided things for me, so why not help my best friend?"

I kissed her on the forehead. "You will always be a special friend to both Annabeth and me, Thalia, the best friend we could ever have. After all you did teach me how to give her an orgasm!"

Thalia smiled at last. "Let's go get her back shall we?"

I nodded and put my hand in the water. I could feel the map of the ride, the flows and eddies, the pumps and drains, the people in their boats and I knew Annabeth had been in here. In fact she might still be here somewhere.

"There is a boat maintenance tunnel that splits off near the end. It's covered by a gate and some props but it swings open. I stopped the water flowing in the ride by shutting down the pumps and stopping the water flow, and I moved the boat by willpower alone.#

"I hope Luke doesn't transport Annabeth out of here." Thalia said.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, If Luke can't get past any traps or doors he has those pearls doesn't he?"

The answer hit me like a tsunami. "That's it Thalia! You're a genius!" I gave her a huge kiss, which got her smiling again.

She blinked and looked at me. "I am?"

"Yep. I'm going to take Luke down."

We reached the maintenance point and I opened the gate and pushed the boat through. I shut the gate behind me and let the ride restart. I climbed into the water and felt power surge through me.

"Stay here for a few minutes then follow behind me, Thalia. I'm going to scope the place out." She nodded. I powered through the water towards the boat storage and maintenance pool and slowly lifted my head above the waterline to see what was around. What I saw scared the life out of me.

Luke was by an exit door with Annabeth lying, still naked, on the floor in front of him. He was stroking his hand between her legs, and she seemed to still be unconscious. He moved her legs apart and I could see he was about to enter her. In a rage I flung some water in their direction. It missed Luke completely, but hit Annabeth full in the face, and she awoke immediately. She didn't panic, and I've never been more proud of her. She sized up the situation in a flash and grabbed Luke by the cock to stop him entering her, and head butted him full in the face which caused him to lose balance and fall to her side. She managed to scramble clear. I launched myself out of the water and landed next to Annabeth.

"Welcome back, babe." I told her, planting a big kiss on her lips. I then pointed at Luke.

"Your mine this time Rapist Boy!" I shouted.

"And how exactly are you going to defeat me?" Luke sneered. He was blasted of his feet by a bolt of lightning.

"Oh, we'll find a way!" Thalia answered climbing out of the water.

"The three of you together can't beat me, I'm indestructible. You can't even hurt me!"

I whispered something to Thalia and she smiled and nodded. I then whispered something to Annabeth and she looked at me with admiration.

"A strategy worthy of me, Seaweed Brain!" She smiled.

Luke charged us head on and Thalia blasted him again with lightning, this time aiming for his necklace. It detached from his neck and flew off to the exit door. Luke stayed of his feet this time, and stood their laughing while his body steamed.

"Is that the best you can do, Thalia Grace?" Luke sneered.

"That's all I need to do, Luke Castellan." She retorted. "Annabeth?"

Luke looked on amazed as Annabeth transformed in an owl. "Impressive Chase, you can learn things taught by others, but it won't do you any good."

Annabeth the owl swooped around and grabbed the pearls spilt by Luke's necklace, and she landed on my shoulder, dropping them in my hand. I tightened my fist around them as Annabeth flew off to safety. I willed the water to rise up in a giant wave behind me and sent it crashing towards Luke, submerging him completely. I held the water around him, and adjusted its flow to stop him from breaching its surface. I walked calmly into the ball of water, and opened a bubble of air around Luke's head.

"You may be the bearer of the curse of Achilles, but I am the bearer of bad news. You still have to breathe don't you? You are completely under my control, you rapist scum.

"Just wait- " Luke started to say before I removed the air bubble.

"No, no, Luke. It's my turn to talk now. Are you holding your breath? Good. First, I want you to remember that I beat you here, again. Secondly, Annabeth says she was amazed by how small your willy was, and Thalia thinks you're a bit deformed in that area. So while you go back to your demanding boss, I'll be here naked with the two most wonderful girls on the planet, who you could have had both of if you hadn't switched sides. They were obsessed with you, did you know? And now they hate you as much as anyone can hate anyone." I told him with controlled anger.

I let the air bubble grow around his head again, and he took a panicked breath. I used that opportunity to put the pearls in his mouth, and let the air bubble disappear.

"Go back to the shadows you evil cunt." I shouted and hit him in the face with all the water and fist generated force I could muster. He flew towards the wall and vanished in a white sphere of light. I released the water, which flowed away and turned to face Annabeth and Thalia who were looking on amazed.

"Do you know what?" I said nonchalantly. "I could really do with a cup of tea and some chocolate cake."


	21. Chapter 21: Temptation

**Chapter Twenty-one**

**Temptation**

"What a team!" Thalia cried, pumping a fist in the air. "Percy Jackson you are the coolest mother-fuckin' demigod to ever walk the Earth!" I grinned and puffed out my chest jokingly as the girls walked up to me.

"Don't get too big for your boots Seaweed Brain, We still need to get out of this realm." Annabeth said to me, giving me a kiss as she walked past. Trust Annabeth to bring us down to earth. Thalia gave me a hug and a kiss. "That was amazing! I didn't think we could beat him! How did you come up with that strategy?"

"Annabeth's been rubbing off on me" I said

"I bet she has!" Thalia laughed grabbing me down below.

"Thalia!" Annabeth exclaimed. "You have a one track mind!"

"What else am I supposed to have! We're in Aphrodite's realm, completely naked and I'm with the two coolest and sexiest people on the planet!" Thalia gushed, giving Annabeth a hug and a kiss next. Annabeth didn't look too happy about it. "What's wrong?" Thalia asked.

"I was one second away from being raped! Where were you guys?" She said, sounding very upset. It was only then I realised Annabeth had no idea of what happened to get us here. Thalia and I hastily explained what happened and how we found her in the nick of time.

"I suppose I should thank you two, I feel bad at being taken in the first place." She sniffed.

"You couldn't have stopped him Annabeth, we had no idea about those pearls and he took out me and Thalia as well." I told her "You don't know how horrified I was when I knew that he'd taken you, when I thought I'd lost you." I ran my finger through her hair and wiped a tear from my eye. Annabeth buried her head in my chest and sobbed. "I can't believe Luke would have done that to me." She spluttered out.

"Now we know what he's really like." Thalia said glumly.

"No we don't." I said. Both girls looked at me like I was mad.

"I guess it's too close to home for you two, but I never really knew the guy, so maybe I can think more clearly than you two." I told them.

"What do you mean? It was quite clear what happened." Annabeth stated.

"Was it? Who broke into our hotel room?" I asked.

"Luke! He gassed me and Thalia and choked you out!"

"But was it Luke?" I asked rising an eyebrow.

"Of course it was Luke, I've known him for years- wait a minute what are you trying to say? That wasn't Luke?" Annabeth asked, finally beginning to understand what I was trying to say.

"Of course it wasn't Luke, it was an avatar, a facsimile, a doppelganger!" I stated.

"An avatar? Created by Aphrodite? Why would she do that?" The girls looked at each other, looking quite confused.

"I thought you were smart, Annabeth." I scolded her "Is anything in this realm real? Was my mum judging my body? Was Miley Cyrus trying to rape me? Aphrodite is doing everything for a reason, to create reactions from us. Luke was put here because he was a stumbling block, both of you had an infatuation with him! No, don't deny it!" I stopped their inevitable reactions, holding up my hand. "He was your protector, your family, both of you, and you haven't got over his turn to evil yet. To me he was a rival for your affections, and Aphrodite told me herself that I had to go on a love quest to get you back. It's all a test."

"It all seems so real!" Thalia said. "I keep forgetting it probably isn't."

"We accept the reality of which we are presented. The longer we are here the more real it gets. Have you seen Big Brother?" I asked them both, and they both nodded that they had. "After a few days they completely forget that they are in a bubble being watched by millions. We may not be being watched by millions but we are stuck in a bubble of false reality. Aphrodite can do whatever she wants to do to us in here, without the other Gods knowing, and it's not often a God or Goddess can directly influence us. They are supposed to leave us to our own destiny. That scene with you and Luke? There was never going to be a rape! It was a setup to get a reaction from me and Thalia. And it worked."

When did you get so wise, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth asked with a smile.

"I just don't want to be manipulated emotionally anymore. We still have to suffer through Aphrodite's depraved realm, but we can take any emotional diversion with a pinch of salt from here on in."

"Cool and Smart." Quite a catch you got there, Annabeth!" Thalia teased her.

"I know, I'm a lucky girl." Annabeth said, giving me a much welcomed hug and kiss.

I grinned like an idiot. "Thanks, babe! We just have to get through this realm, and we can assist the Olympians in removing the giants. Now how do we get through this door?"

"Err Percy, it's another seed door." Thalia said, reading a sign by the side of the door.

Annabeth smiled. "I've got it this time, I think."

I grinned as Annabeth knelt down in front of me and kissed me on the tip, before showing me what she had learnt, and again, it didn't take long. I orgasmed explosively over the door and it audibly unlocked. The girls waited, giggling, for me to compose myself, and we walked through.

"It's a beach!" Thalia exclaimed.

It was a beautiful one too, the sun was just setting over the horizon sending its red golden rays over the water and the white sand. The temperature was perfect, and I held out a small hope that this would be a nice and maybe even final part of the realm. There was a huge turtle dragging its bulk up the beach, and I smiled as the girls ran over to have a look at this rare sight. I watched smiling, knowing it was a thirty-eight year old leatherback turtle and it was the twenty-ninth time she had returned to this very spot to lay her eggs in the sand. I walked over to an open fire that was flickering further along the beach to see if there was anyone around. What I thought was a bonfire, was in fact not a bonfire at all, but a small statue of Aphrodite burning with green Greek fire. It was sat on a low circular wall of grey rocks and seemed to stare at me as I approached. I stepped into the circle and studied the statue intently. It was a beautiful piece of artwork, made spectacular by the fire that surrounded it and danced across its surface like water. I looked over to see the girls approaching, but when they got near to the stone circle, the Greek fire leapt off the statue and ignited the stone wall, completely surrounding me with fire.

"Stay back!" I shouted to Thalia and Annabeth. "There's not much you can do here!"

The fire got brighter and hotter. There was no chance now of diving through it without injury. I knew Greek fire could not be extinguished by any normal means such as water or sand, you could either let bit run out of magical fuel or use magic itself to put it out. I couldn't use magic, and I didn't know how much fuel was left and the fire was getting unbearably hot now. I was going to have to use water to keep me cool and quickly. I pulled in a bubble of water from the sea and surrounded myself with it, and the fire increased in intensity tenfold. I started swirling the water around me at high speed to keep it cool, but the fire was to hot and steam was getting trapped within the water bubble. I recognised I was in a similar position to when I was in Hephaestus' forge with the Telekhines, but I had more water to use here, so I had a little more control. I knew I'd have to release the steam before it burnt me, and the steam could be used to propel me out of the fire circle, and hopefully with more control than from Mt. St Helens. Unfortunately my luck didn't hold out, the fire increased in intensity yet again and started to flash my water bubble to steam. I released the steam pressure immediately to prevent myself from being pot roasted, and shot straight up at a ridiculous speed. I flew through the air for what seemed like an eternity, hoping desperately I'd land in the sea. I couldn't see anything and groped for the air as I dropped out of the sky and safely entered the water. It was about twelve feet deep and about two hundred yards from a beach. I hoped it was the same on that I had left. I propelled myself towards the beach, feeling confused. I couldn't get my bearings. I always knew where in the world I was when I was in the sea, but I just drew a blank here. I got to the beach and climbed out. I checked my body, and was gratified to see I managed to not injure myself. It took me days to recover from my last fire based steam expulsion event. I looked around, and realised with growing unease that I recognised this place, and that Aphrodite was really playing hardball this time. She had taken me back to Ogygia, and I was going to have to face Calypso again.

Calypso was the immortal daughter of the Titan, Atlas and was imprisoned here for eternity for helping the Titans on the God-Titan war. She was also one of the most beautiful and kind hearted beings I had ever met. It was difficult to have left her the last time, and now I was going have to face her again, this time with no clothes on. I sat on the beach, looked up at the stars and spoke to myself. "Why me? What did I do?"

"I don't know Percy Jackson, what did you do?"

I spun around to see a God standing before me. Hermes.

"Are you real? Or are you one of Aphrodite's avatars?" I asked feeling annoyed.

"Such respect for the Gods these days! I can only assume, Master Jackson, that by your speech, attitude and attire, Aphrodite has you trapped in one of her realms, a disturbing prospect, I must say. To answer your question, I am Hermes, father of Luke Castellan, and I met you at Camp Half-Blood and gave you some of my multi-vitamins and a flask of wind to help you rescue your friend Grover, and return the Golden Fleece. I am actually here in Ogygia to see Calypso, as are you. If Aphrodite has sent you here, she doesn't need to recreate this, as you will suffer enough with the real one, as will Calypso, who Aphrodite has been teasing for years." Hermes told me, showing no emotion or clues to his thinking.

"You're visiting Calypso?" I asked.

"Yes. I visit her often, I'm her defence council, if you like. I'm trying to convince Zeus to release her from this prison. I may even get somewhere in a thousand years or so. What are you doing here?"

I gave Hermes an abbreviated story of our journey so far.

"So the prophecy told you to get to Olympus through the other entrance, so you could help us with a giant problem, and this did not come through the regular oracle, correct?" I nodded my agreement.

"And Dionysus told you about the giants?" I nodded again.

"I'm rather annoyed I wasn't informed of this quest, I'm the messenger of the Gods, and I should know about this. I guess Apollo is keeping things close to his chest, not wanting Zeus to know about the quest. Zeus would hate the thought of having to rely on demigods for help. All I can say to you now, Percy is that things in Olympus are not quite what they seem, and when you get through with what you have to do, I want you to come and see me in Olympus before you go to the throne room. Can you do that for me?" He asked.

"Of course I will." I told him. You don't turn down a request from a God.

"I can be found in my temple, your presence in my temple will call me back immediately. Now I have to go and see Apollo and Dionysus, as there are some things we should discuss before you arrive. Good luck with the rest of your quest, Percy, you are going to need it. Shut your eyes please."

I shut my eyes before Hermes reverted back to his Godly form and vanished, leaving me alone on the beach, not feeling any better at having talked to Hermes. I was going to have to see Calypso soon, as only she has the magical raft that can get me back to Annabeth. I wasn't looking forward to it, as Calypso was in love with me and she is without doubt the most beautiful person I had ever seen, even more beautiful than Aphrodite. I steeled myself and walked towards the lights further along the beach.

I could see Calypso before she saw me, and she was singing to herself and tending to some plants. I took a deep breath and approached her making no attempt to hide my nakedness, I didn't see the point. She looked exactly like I remembered, with her caramel hair and peach complexion. She was even wherein the same sleeveless dress. I could have left yesterday.

"Hello Calypso."

She spun around in surprise and saw me standing there. I have no idea what must have been going through her mind at what she must have been seeing. Her jaw dropped and I saw her noticeably look down at my groin then back up to my face. Tears streamed from her eyes as she ran over to grasp me in a bear hug. I put my arms around her and held her for a short while, and I knew the next few hours were going to be some of the most difficult of my life. She lifted up her head and looked at me with those beautiful almond eyes of hers, and I almost surrendered there and then. I had to use all the willpower at my disposal not to be sucked into forgetting everything I knew and drowning in those eyes that were looking at me, pleading and expectant. I didn't feel worthy of the moment, but I was determined to hold myself together for both of our sakes.

"P-Percy Jackson, you came back." She managed to stutter out, hope in her eyes.

"No Calypso, I was sent back." I told her. I almost lost it then, I could see the disappointment in her eyes as she realised I wasn't there for her. She started crying again.

"I can't stand it Percy! Why do they torture me like this? I am not evil!" She cried.

"It was Aphrodite. As you can see by my lack of attire, she is torturing me as well. I'm so sorry, Calypso, of all the beings in the universe, I would not hurt you. If it wasn't for events in the outside world, I could stay here and happily be with you, but we both know that isn't possible." I said with a tear in my eye.

Calypso took some deep breaths and composed herself, and she looked more like the Calypso I remembered. She was in control of herself, but with a layer of infinite sadness permeating her beautiful smile. She ran a hand down the side of my face and wiped away a tear.

"The Gods have us both in their clutches so it would seem Percy, and no matter how mean they can be, I am overjoyed to at least see you. Can you stay one night? It is getting late. She asked.

I did need to get back, but I didn't know how time was functioning, what with time running at different speeds on Ogygia and Aphrodite's realm and with the direct interference of a God. I guess it couldn't do any harm to get some sleep and have a talk with Calypso.

"Yes, I can stay a night." I told her. The look on her face almost melted my heart.

"I'm afraid I don't have any clothes for you!" She said giggling.

"That's okay, if you have been through what I have been through in the last day, embarrassment doesn't come easy. I almost like being naked now, apart from missing my sword."

She took my hand and walked me to a part of the beach I hadn't seen. It had a circular wooden hut with a thatched roof that connected to a pier that ran out to sea. The pier also had a thatched roof and connected to a square chalet at the end of the pier, sitting on stilts over the flat water. It looked like a vacation paradise, the sort of place people went on expensive honeymoons, and with the moon shining over the water, there was no place I'd rather be right now. She took me through the hut which had a fire in the middle and cooking utensils hanging from the wall, she picked up a bowl of fruit and exited other side, out onto the pier. The pier had torches hanging from the roof, but not torches of flame, but rather full of a type of firefly, and they gave of a very calming flickering light. The pier and chalet at the end were open on the sides, but that didn't matter, there was no wind whatsoever and the temperature was perfect. She led me to the end of the pier to the open sided chalet which apart from pillars holding up the roof and a few torches, contained only a large bed set into the floor.

I began to get a bit nervous at this point. I was going out with Annabeth, and I was loyal to a fault. I had done stuff with Thalia, yes, but that was with Annabeth's permission, and necessary to get through the realm. I didn't need to do anything here, and anything I did here would be for my own enjoyment. Calypso put the fruit down and turned to face me. She grabbed my face and kissed me deeply. She tasted like warm apple pie and cream, but I could also taste her hope, her longing and her deep love for me. I knew I'd never experience something like this again, it was like melding together to becoming a single person and merging our minds and emotions together in a closeness I could have never even conceived of. And I knew that as I read her thoughts and feelings, mine were open to her too, right down to my very soul and the core of my being. I could have stayed like this for ever, and with Calypso, I could do exactly that. Until I suddenly thought of Annabeth and Calypso broke off the kiss immediately. We both stood there breathing heavily.

"You love her." Calypso stated quietly.

"Yes."

"No, I mean, you _really_ love her, Percy. Every fibre of your being calls for her, every thought process ends with her, every decision you make is calculated for her. It is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!" She said smiling with tears in her eyes. "You may find me physically more attractive and I can experience real emotional contact with you, but I could never match what she has with you Percy. You are a lucky man."

"Yes. I am."

Calypso pulled her dress over her head and stood before me naked. She was spectacular and I rose to the occasion. She pulled me close and whispered in my ear.

"I will not ask you to have sex with me Percy, because I know you won't. You are saving yourself for her, and I understand that. You have a deep loyalty to her, but do you have any loyalty to me? I have not had any intimate contact for over three thousand years, will you stay with me tonight?"

I felt a little guilty, but my loyalty to Calypso helped overcome it, and I couldn't leave her without some form of friendship.

"I'll stay with you tonight Calypso, but like you said, no sex, and trust me, I deeply want to have sex but the shame will never leave me even if Annabeth knows nothing of this."

Calypso smiled a heartbreakingly lovely smile and took my hand.

"Your deep loyalty is one of your most endearing features Percy."

She sat me down on the bed, and picked up the bowl of fruit and we fed each other playfully, and we talked and she laughed as I told her of my adventures in the realms. She extracted a bottle of scented oil from small compartment and massaged me from foot to neck and I could feel my tension draining away with her touch. I had to force myself to stay awake.

"Turn over, sleepyhead!" She ordered me, playfully slapping my ass.

I did so and she massaged my front, first with her hands, and then with her entire oiled body. I was an incredibly sensual experience, and one I would have to remember to try with Annabeth. She finally ended my massaging my erection, and taking me in her mouth, teasing me by slowing down, every time she sensed I was nearing a climax, until she eventually allowed me to come, and she happily squeezed out every drop.

"No intimacy for three thousand years? You could have fooled me!" I gasped. She was good.

"We Titans have long memories, Percy. Come on, get up it is my turn now!" She giggled, diving on to the bed.

I grabbed the oil and dripped it all over her back and ass and started to rub her body all over. It's bizarre really, here I was massaging the most beautiful and wonderful person naked and all I could think of was 'I'd like to try this with Annabeth'. Maybe Calypso was right, the shadow of Annabeth loomed over everything I did. I tried to shake Annabeth from my mind for now.

"Turn over then!" I said, reciprocating the ass slap.

She did so, and I took an involuntary breath, she really was the most stunning person. I ran my hands over her whole body and finally I opened her legs and decided to try something I'd never done. I kissed my way up her leg and finally reached my target. Calypso purred as I teased her with my tongue. She gave me some instruction on how to do it better and I soon had her breathing very hard. She even tasted like cinnamon, which I was sure was not normal, but I wasn't going to complain. After a few minutes my jaw got tired and I lay down beside her and took over with my hands. This time I teased her by not letting her get to orgasm quickly, but I could sense I couldn't hold it off for long and as her body shook she grabbed my head.

"Kiss me Percy and whatever happens don't stop, it feels so good!" She gasped between breaths.

I was about to kiss her, but she grabbed my head and beat me to it. I should have had some idea of what to expect, but I wasn't even close. Her kiss mingled our thoughts and feelings and the beginnings of her orgasm hit me like a mental sledgehammer. Waves of pleasure, almost painful pumped through me, timed with our now synchronised heartbeats, and I had no idea how women could take this. I tried to pull away but she wouldn't let me, and my body started convulsing with hers as we reached orgasm. It was like an atom bomb going off in my brain and I finally pulled away after the orgy of pleasure and sensation hit a crescendo and I couldn't take anymore. We both screamed out loud and I sent a circular wave of energy off through the water at least ten yards high in all directions as I couldn't keep it all in. We both collapsed together in a ball of sweat and I noticed I'd come over her leg.

"Fuck!" I exclaimed.

"I wish!" Calypso retorted.

"So do I now!" I joked. Not one hundred percent joking.

Calypso giggles and we lay there hugging on the bed under the moonlight until we both fell asleep.

Morning awoke me as the sun rose above the horizon, and I found Calypso curled within the curve of my body. I ticked her nipple and her eyes fluttered open. She gave me another heartbreaking smile.

"Good morning, Percy. I want to thank you for last night." She told me.

"That's okay, Calypso, thank you for sharing your pleasure with me."

"Now you will know what Annabeth feels when you do that to her, but considering the power you let off when you felt it, it's just as well you can't normally get that sort of sensation. We girls are truly the lucky ones."

"You certainly are!"

"I'm going to send you on your way now." She said with a resigned smile.

"I hope fate finds something for you Calypso." I told her.

"The Fates hate me, Percy, salvation will have to come from another direction, I'm afraid."

"I'll work on Zeus for you. See if I can get him to change his mind."

"That's as much as I can ask I suppose Percy, but I won't hold much hope. Hermes and Artemis have both tried on my behalf many times. Artemis wants me as a hunter to replace my sister, Zoe. I'm not sure I could kill though. Did you plant my moonlace in your New York City?"

"I did and it's flourishing. My mother looks after it."

"Well, it's good to hear I have brought some beauty to the real world." She said perking up a bit. "Now to bring a bit more beauty to the real world." She clicked her fingers and the magic raft appeared from under the chalet."

I hugged her tight and looked into her eyes.

"Go get Annabeth and don't let her go, do you hear, Percy Jackson? Forget about me and treat her like a queen" She said to me sternly. "I can't come between you and her, your love for each other is so strong it is written into the fabric of the stars themselves and the future of the world will turn on it, of that I am sure, Percy."

I wasn't quite sure what to say to that, so I just kissed her goodbye and climbed onto the raft. I watched her standing there naked as the raft drifted away and when she was out of sight I broke down in tears, distraught at what cruel tricks the fates play on us. Eventually the thought of getting back to Annabeth straightened me out and I locked the memories of Calypso away, knowing I would never tell Annabeth about her and what my feelings for her were. I felt guilty about it but it was for the best. Annabeth must never know how close I came to leaving her, and the rest of the world to stay with Calypso.


	22. Chapter 22: Future's Lost

**Chapter Twenty Two**

**Future's Lost**

The raft moved towards the beach and I could see the circle of fire still burning away. I slid into the water and propelled myself towards the beach. I walked out of the water only to find two frantic teenagers arguing. I could hear them quite clearly.

"You should go after him!" Thalia shouted.

"How exactly!" Annabeth said, in tears.

"Turn into an Owl!"

"And go where? He shot off at about two hundred miles an hour into darkness! I can't catch him and I won't be able to find him!" Annabeth cried.

"Thanks for your concern, ladies, but no searching is required." I butted in.

"PERCY!" they shouted together.

Annabeth ran to me and hugged me tight.

"I love you, Annabeth Chase!" I whispered in her ear.

She pulled back and smiled at me. "What happened?" she asked with a concerned look.

I felt a bit awkward. "How long was I gone for?" I asked.

"You don't remember?"

"My head is a bit dizzy right now, Annabeth." I dodged.

"You were only gone a couple of minutes. If that."

"A couple of minutes!" I looked at them incredulously, but I realised I didn't have to make up a story now. "I must admit, it seemed longer."

"I'll say!" Thalia said. "You fired out of here like a rocket!"

"I met Hermes in the air too! The real one that is." I said, making it up as I went along.

"Hermes!" Annabeth said excitedly, "Did he give you some help?"

"Not really. I just spoke with him in the clouds. He had no idea about our quest, which I found unusual. He wants us to visit him the second we get to Olympus, before we approach the throne room."

"We can do that, no problem, I wonder what for though?" Annabeth said with a thoughtful look on her face.

"I've no idea, I did say I would though."

"Why would he have no idea about our quest? He's the messenger of the Gods, he knows more than the rest of them put together!" Annabeth pondered.

"He said something about Apollo keeping it quiet so Zeus didn't find out." I told her.

"Well Apollo is in charge of prophecies, but why would he keep it from Zeus? Oh yes! To beat Giants needs demigods! And Zeus doesn't like being dependant on demigods, he would not have granted the quest." Annabeth worked out.

"That's very good Annabeth, but how do we get out of here?" Thalia interjected.

We looked around and the beach seemed blocked of in one direction by cliffs, so we went the other way until we came across a house on the beach, like any you might find in Malibu.

"This is the only place here, I guess it must be our destination." I said.

We walked up the wooden steps leading to the house, when the familiar figure of Aphrodite came out to greet us. She was naked, and carrying a champagne glass. She was beautiful of course, but I found she had lost a little power over me since my time with Calypso, and no wonder she didn't like Calypso, she didn't like to be outshone by anyone.

"Hello my darlings! Welcome to my house on the beach, and feel free to join the party! This will be your last stop here in my realm, so I hope you enjoy yourselves!" Aphrodite announced, before strutting past us and vanishing in a flash.

We looked at each other, and I knew they were thinking the same thing as me. We had to go to a party, and we were still naked.

"Maybe I'll be like the water park, and no one will notice us because of the mist." Thalia stated.

"I hope so, I'm getting fed up of this." I complained.

We entered the house and virtually everyone stopped and looked at us. Our hopes were dashed, the mist was no help to us here as everyone could see us. But we could see them as well, and everyone in the room was as naked as we were. I recognised some of them too, it was like we'd come to an after-Oscars beer keg party.

"Oh Gods! That's Brad Pitt! – and that's Robert Pattinson!" Annabeth squealed. "And Tristan Maclean! I loved him in 'King of Sparta'! She gushed.

I checked out the women I recognised, I could see Charlize Theron, Scarlett Johnassen, Jennifer Lawrence and Kristin Stewart, who was on a table doing something really gross with a beer bottle.

"You don't see that in Twilight!" I joked to Annabeth, who was a fan of the vampire series. I was getting harder and harder to shock us anymore, but Annabeth seemed stunned at the goings on around her. She paled and looked away as Kristin pulled out the bottle and started to drink from it. We grabbed some beers and walked around the house. In the kitchen Shia Labeouf was taking Angelina Jolie roughly from behind, and they paid no attention to our intrusion.

"Isn't she too old for him?" Thalia whispered to us, making me snort my beer on the floor, but Annabeth looked even more embarrassed. We grabbed some food from the kitchen, and wolfed it down, it seemed ages since we had eaten anything together, and left the kitchen laughing about how bored Angelina looked with Shia's attempted dirty talk. We checked out other rooms and witnessed some things we hadn't even imagined in our wildest dreams. George Clooney dressed as a baby, being breast fed by Jessica Alba. Emma Watson being fought over by Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint (Aphrodite really does have a sense of humor, I thought to myself), J-Lo was lying on a table covered in custard with several men I didn't recognise licking it all off. It was hard to know what to do or say to something like that. We closed the door and looked at each other.

"So what are we supposed to do here?" Annabeth asked, looking annoyed. "Are we here just to witness this depravity or do we have a task to do?"

"I have no idea, I guess we just have to keep searching for the answer." I replied.

"I don't want to see anymore!" Annabeth proclaimed. "It's making me feel sick."

"How about Percy and I keep looking and you wait here and we'll come and get you?" Thalia suggested.

Jack Nicholson ran past, chasing a young girl, holding his cock in his hand and swearing profusely.

"I'm not staying here alone! Are you mad! Annabeth said, looking disturbed.

"Then we have to search together, and upstairs is next, let's go." I told them. There were no arguments.

We walked up the stairs and checked out the first room we found. It was a bathroom and the shower was occupied.

"That's Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan, I think." Annabeth whispered to me. I shrugged as I didn't know who they were.

"Shall we have some fun while we are here?" I asked. The girls both smiled. I reached out and felt for the water in my mind and found it soon enough and willed it to hold itself in a ball above their heads. We laughed as they looked confused then looked up. I then turned the water ice cold and dropped it on their heads. They both screamed and jumped out of the shower, but I just kept pelting them with streams of cold water until they ran past us and out of the room screaming. Thalia and Annabeth could barely stand for laughing. I looked around the bathroom, but there were no clues here.

"I guess our destiny lies somewhere else." I said.

We exited the bathroom and Thalia came face to face with Ben Affleck who looked like he'd been drinking for most of his life. I winced as he grabbed Thalia between the legs.

"Howdy darlin', wanna see what a real man can do?" He stammered drunkenly.

"No I don't, but I can show you what a real woman can do." Thalia said angrily.

Affleck smiled as Thalia grabbed his cock, and we then heard a crackling sound. Affleck's smile turned to a grimace as electricity pounded through his genitals.

"Don't ever touch a hunter again!" Thalia told him before sending him flying across the hallway with his pubic hair on fire.

Thalia dusted off her hands and looked at us. "Shall we keep on hunting then?"

Annabeth and I cracked up, Thalia had turned a nasty situation into a hilarious one. Sometimes it was good to be a demigod.

We checked other rooms, and found no clues until we reached the end of the hallway, where we found a small but steep circular staircase leading upward.

"Where does it go?" I asked.

"Duh! It goes up, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth laughed with a dopey look on her face.

"Looks promising." I said letting the others go first. I was climbing behind Annabeth and had a great view of her ass and between her legs right in front of my face, and when she stopped suddenly I nearly rammed my head into her butt cheeks.

"There's a door here with an owl a trident and a bolt on it!" Thalia exclaimed excitedly.

"It would seem that it is time for Aphrodite's final challenge." Annabeth said, sounding pensive now.

We walked through the door and it closed behind us. I tried to open it, but it seemed magically locked.

"Aphrodite likes locking us in rooms." I murmured angrily to no one in particular.

The room was circular with wooden panelling and a chandelier hanging from an ornate domes ceiling. There was a door on the opposite side, which was of course locked. The room itself was dominated by one impressive feature, a circular bed at least twelve feet in diameter. The sheets on the bed were lavishly embroidered with familiar designs. An owl and a bolt.

"Love will get you through." Thalia read off the door, looking over at us with a puzzled look on her face. Annabeth wasn't sure where to look.

"Look at the bed Thalia." I suggested, slightly surprised and a little disappointed.

"A big round bed, wha- oh, an owl and a bolt, me and Annabeth?"

"Love will get you through." I repeated Thalia's words back to her. I was trying not to show my disappointment to the others, I thought this was going to be my time. Annabeth was looking at the floor, clearly not having the nerve to look at anyone.

"I d-don't know about this" Annabeth stammered, looking nervously at Thalia. "I love you to bits, Thalia, but I've never really felt attracted to women."

"Could have fooled me!" I chuckled.

"Shut you fucking face Percy, I'm being serious, I don't even know what to do!" Annabeth cried, looking again at an apprehensive looking Thalia.

"Sorry Annabeth, I didn't think, I-" I said before Annabeth cut me off.

"Don't worry about it Perce, I'm scared that's all"

Thalia moved to envelop Annabeth in a hug and proceeded to wipe the tears from her eyes. "Come with me Petal, we have to do this." She led Annabeth over to the bed and laid her down. "Shut your eyes if it helps." Annabeth shook her head and bit her bottom lip, and after a few seconds, looked up at Thalia and nervously smiled and reached out for her head. Thalia didn't hesitate for a second and she kissed Annabeth deeply and to what appeared to me for an astonishing length of time. I felt somewhat disconnected, abandoned even as envy ran through me, but the rational side to my brain beat the feeling back and I lay down on the bed and prepared to enjoy the show.

The girls disengaged from their embrace and Thalia slowly kissed her way down Annabeth's beautiful body. When Thalia parted her legs, Annabeth started taking deep breaths and looked at me with her eyes as wide as saucers. She reached out for my hand and held on to it tightly. I smiled and gave her a small nod as if to say that yes, everything will be ok, she smiled back just before Thalia's tongue connected with its target. Annabeth drew in a sharp intake of breath and nearly ripped my arm out of its socket. She shut her eyes tight and massaged her breast with her free hand started panting rapidly as Thalia changed her motions and started using her hands as well. Thalia looked at me and winked from between Annabeth's legs, and I noticed I was incredibly turned on by this and I knew it would take all my willpower not to jerk myself off, this was supposed to be the girls moment after all. I saw a flicker of electricity spark from Thalia's tongue and Annabeth screamed and shook violently arching her back so far I almost though it was going to break.

"No more! No more!" Annabeth screamed pulling Thalia away from her and lying back shaking in pool of her own sweat. I checked to see if I still had five fingers on my hand. The whole orgasm could not have taken more than two minutes, Thalia had some serious talent, it seemed.

"Well, would you look at that!" Thalia announced, looking at the far wall.

The door had opened.

"You owe me one, Wise Girl!" Thalia laughed."You got an orgasm and I didn't!"

Annabeth looked both relieved and guilty at the same time.

"Well let's go before Aphrodite changes her mind!" I shouted and jumped up to go.

"Wait!" Annabeth shouted, "I can hardly fucking walk!"

We both helped her up, and she took unsteadily to her feet.

"Where the hell did you learn to do that? You didn't have a clue how to do Percy!"

"My time in with the Hunters was not wasted." Thalia flushed, "No boys, so much frustration."

"Well, you're very good at it, but that makes me happy I never joined that lesbian cabal of yours." Annabeth stated matter-of-factly. I held back a smile and looked at Thalia expecting to see her hurt or angry, but she was neither, she just smiled wanly.

"I guess it is a bit like that, and I understand you completely, I really do, but I don't regret my decision for a second. The Hunters made me what I am today. Anyway, onwards and upwards." Thalia pointed towards a staircase that had opened up.

"Stairs! That's all I need right now, I can hardly walk!"

"Still a bit sensitive are we?" I said rubbing her between the legs as I passed. Her legs collapsed from under her with a squeal. Thalia and I laughed hard.

"Bastards!"

We laughed harder, before helping her up

"Up the stairs we go." I said leading the way.

The room at the top was not what I was expecting. It was still a bedroom, but it was full of stuff and hadn't been tidied in years. The bed hadn't been made and the curtains were closed.

"What a shithole!" Thalia stated.

"It's my bedroom." I said looking at Thalia seriously.

"I'm sorry Perce, I-"

"Ha! Got you!" I laughed. Thalia sighed.

"Are you saying isn't your room?"

"No, it is, but I'm fully aware it's a shithole. Mum won't tidy it because of possible magical items, and as you know I ain't the tidiest." The door closed behind us. "Oh. Ok, what now"

Two of the small statues on my shelf started glowing. The biggest one, in pride of place was Poseidon, my dad. "Poseidon, that's me, the other statue is-"

"Athena." Annabeth said, looking at me with slightest hint of a smile. "That's me."

Thalia grinned like an idiot. "Right, it seems clear enough, to get out of this room, you two have to fuck!"

"Thalia!" we both shouted, shocked.

"What? I'm just telling you the facts!"

Annabeth and I looked at each other and she went bright red, I could tell I was flushing too. I took her hand and looked onto her eyes. She gave me the smallest of nods.

"You sure?" I whispered

"In your bed of all places, what could be more perfect? I want you Percy Jackson."

A jolt ran down my spine. This was the day I'd always dreamed of. The girl that I loved asking me to have sex with her. I suddenly felt very nervous with the pressure of it, wanting to perform well, and to do it in front of an audience (Thalia) as well. My nervousness must have shown on both my face and lower down.

"Don't worry Perce, I'm nervous too, but everything will be ok, I don't expect miracles, let's just be together, no expectations, just two people in love who want to share themselves with each other."

I love this girl so much. Thalia, I noticed had sat down on my beanbag, staying out of the way for this one, seemingly understanding that this was going to be uncomfortable for us. I was more grateful than she could ever imagine, leaving the moment for me and Annabeth.

"Let's get you ready shall we?" Annabeth said to me coyly. For a second or two I wondered what she meant, until she bent down and took me in her mouth. I was stunned for a second or two, she had always been too shy for this, but now I looked down to find Annabeth Chase, the girl I'd loved for years, sucking me off and looking me right in the eyes while she did it. I must have got an erection in record time. She held it in her hands and gave me a smile that would have melted Hades heart. It was all I could do to stop crying of happiness. She stands up and takes my hand, pulling me towards the bed. She throws the duvet off (over Thalia!) and lies down pulling me towards her. I give a second thought whether or not to use what I'd leant with Calypso, and go down on her, but I figured I couldn't compete with Thalia, so why even try? I kneel between her legs and bend over to kiss her.

What happened next was not expected at all. I read her thoughts. I instantly knew she'd read mine too. I saw her eyes open widely in surprise. This was the experience I had with Calypso, and this was her gift to me, the ability to share minds with the girl I truly love. I was so happy, but then realised Annabeth knew everything.

"Annabeth I-I"

"You could have told me." She said, calmly

"I was-"

"What? Emabarrased? Ashamed?

"NO!-Yes I-

"You love her?" Annabeth said quietly. Thalia was looking up in complete shock now.

"Yes but-"

"You didn't tell me about the first time either."

"I'm sorry! I was scared!

"Scared of what? My wrath?

"I was scared of losing the girl I love! Through the manipulations of fucking gods, OK!" I cried. She paused for a few seconds and the smiled a beaming smile.

"I'm so proud of you, Percy Jackson."

"What?" Thalia looked even more confused than me.

"I'm sorry to push you like that but that sharing of thoughts overwhelmed me somewhat. It took me a few seconds to sort it out. Come here lover!"

"Uhh." She hugged me as tight as she could and started crying.

"You gave up Calypso for me? Twice? It's well known Calypso is beautiful and adorable and makes anyone that meets her fall in love with her as she falls in love with them." Annabeth was in floods of tears now. "I saw it all Percy, your love for me overrides everything else, and I can never doubt your devotion to me ever again." She spluttered, and we all started crying. Even Thalia.

I kissed her again, and I could feel her love for me a thousand fold more now. The feelings intensified our need for each other and we both knew we couldn't wait any longer. I ran my fingers between her legs, and she was wetter than I ever thought possible, she gave out a moan of pleasure and I kissed her again as I entered her. I struggled to continue as we shared pleasure though our kiss but her mental support kept me going as I thrusted deeper into her. We moved as one connected being, each knowing what the other liked and what they were going to do, and I knew I couldn't last long, she knew that too, and encouraged my orgasm to match hers exactly and we both cried out in pleasure as we both come simultaneously. I flopped down onto her completely spent, and dripping with sweat. I stayed within her and I could feel out heartbeats through our connection.

"I love you Annabeth Chase."

"Perseus Jackson! You stud! You were fantastic! I won't be able to move for ages now! Two orgasms in half an hour! Thank you too Thalia!" We both looked over at Thalia who was sat on my beanbag playing with herself.

"What?" She said looking up at us. "Do you two know how incredibly horny that all was?

We all bundled into my little en-suite shower and gleefully washed each other off.

"I'll be dripping out of here for a week Jackson!" Annabeth smiled as she dried herself off. "I hope that was it now, and we can get through to Olympus."

"There's a good chance that was the climax of Aphrodite's Realm" I said

"No innuendo please, Jackson." Thalia said. "It's about time we got out of here.

The door had opened while we were in the shower and led to yet another staircase. When we reached the top, I didn't recognise the place but Annabeth and Thalia clearly did. Thalia seemed almost distraught.

"Fuck you Aphrodite! Fuck you! Thalia cried, dropped to her knees and burst into tears.

Annabeth looked at me sadly then looked at the floor, not quite knowing what to do. A girl born as a natural leader and a master of strategy and tactics was lost here completely, but not as lost as me standing there with a dumb look on my face as Thalia wept on her knees before me.

I looked around we were in a dormitory of some kind, dimly lit in a white-blue light. The walls had depictions of animals and hunting and the beds were covered in silver sheets. A bad feeling rose up my spine that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

"It's Cabin Eight." Annabeth said quietly."

"What? At Camp-Half-Blood?" I said stunned.

"Yes. You see the significance, don't you?" She said sadly.

My mind went into overdrive, This wasn't Olympus clearly, so we were still in Aphrodite's realm. Cabin Eight was the Artemis cabin, reserved for when the hunters stayed at camp. Boys weren't allowed, so I had never seen it inside. So we were in Thalia's home cabin, so why is she so upset?

Annabeth saw my confusion and pointed to the number one bed. A trident and a bolt. Ok, Aphrodite wanted me and Thalia to have sex to complete the realm, we knew this might happen, but why is the thought of having sex with me so bad? Annabeth doesn't seem as upset and she's my girlfriend.

"Thalia will lose her immortality, Percy" Annabeth explained to me. "She will lose her huntress status and she has to do it, you know break her vow to Artemis in her own cabin, it's like doing it in front of your mom."

"Bitch!" I shouted, meaning Aphrodite

I went over to give Thalia a hug.

"We don't have to do this, Thalia, we'll find another way."

"Then you haven't learnt enough about the Gods, Percy, because she will never let us out, she will keep us here for all eternity until we do her bidding. This is her big fuck you to Artemis. They hate each other, one a love goddess, one an eternal maiden, and Aphrodite has been tempting Artemis's hunters for eons." Thalia explained.

"Shit."

"Percy we may as well get this out of the way, if Annabeth is ok with that."

Annabeth gave her a small nod.

Thalia took me by the hand and walked me over to a bed.

"I've always wanted this, Percy, but knew it couldn't happen, so if I seem a little upset, it's not you, okay?" I nodded my understanding. "Annabeth is the luckiest girl in the world, Percy."

"I'm the lucky one, Thalia."

"Yes Percy, you are. Annabeth is a wonderful girl."

"This is tragic, Thalia, It shouldn't happen like this."

"We've all fallen into Aphrodite's trap, Percy, I will break my oath to Artemis, lose my future, and I can't even have the man afterwards." Thalia said glumly. "You can be sure there is a plan for you and Annabeth too, this can't be all for me to break an oath." She looked at my body. "You are not turned on right now."She stated. "I can't say I blame you."

I sat on the bed next to her. Not feeling worthy of the moment. I looked at Annabeth who was sat on a bench over the room. She got up and walked over. God she is beautiful. She sits down between us and cleans Thalia's tears away and gives her a kiss. She doesn't say anything. She looks at me and gives me a kiss. I sense her sadness for Thalia and her strong will to help in any way she can. There is no jealousy, only sadness at the direction life has taken for her friend, and a deep almost buried urgency to end this thing, but she can't bury it from me, nor was she trying. We look at each other for a brief second, and I almost can read her mind without a kiss now. She moves down to take me in her mouth, and I shut my eyes and enjoy the experience, and try to purge what the effect of what I am going to do next from my consciousness. I am hard, very hard. She holds on to me and looks to Thalia. She kisses her again and moves her hand between Thalia's legs. Thalia lies back and gasps, and Annabeth keeps going until she is ready. Annabeth looks at me again and motions me to get up, she never lets go of my erection. She guides me to face Thalia. She is so beautiful and yet so sad. She opens her legs for me and Annabeth guides me towards her. I lie on top of her, looking into her eyes, she gives me a brave smile. It's heartbreaking and I have to hold myself together, and be strong for her. Annabeth guides me in and I reluctantly thrust forward. Thalia's head rolls back with a gasp, but when she looks back at me, she has changed. She looked older, her hair is messy, and her complexion is not perfect. To me she is even more beautiful than she was, a real person and not some photo-shopped supermodel simulacrum. She cries a little, then looks into my eyes and I can see that she now knows it is over and she might as well enjoy herself. I can hear the door opening in the background. I look to Thalia and give her a 'Do you want me to stop?' look and she shakes her head and gives me a kiss. I keep going until I eventually climax and pull away. Annabeth comes over and hugs her tightly and they both have a cry.

I get up and walk to the shower, wondering how something can be so beautiful and traumatic at the same time. I find solace under a steaming hot stream of water.

"Hi."

"Hi Annabeth."

"You okay?"

I nod. "Are you?"

She nods.

"Thalia?" Annabeth shrugs. "She's tough. I love you Perseus Jackson"

We say no more and passionately make love in the shower.

I wake up hours later to find myself curled up with Annabeth, and I look over to my side to nearly jump out of my own skin.

"By Zeus Beard, Thalia!" I shout waking Annabeth up.

"Sorry fish brain! I forget the effect it has on people!" Thalia laughs holding up her shield, Aegis with its medusa design. "We have our stuff again." She looks like the untidy goth warrior I remember rather than a maiden princess.

"I like your look." I tell her honestly.

"I like you naked!" She laughs pointing at my groin. And for the first time in ages I feel exposed and embarrassed.

"I'll get my stuff then." I announce shaking my head. Annabeth and I got dressed, glad to have our weapons and armour back but a little sad to leave this realm all being told. I place my trident in its holster between my shoulders and sheath my sword riptide and look towards the open door.

"This better be Olympus, I want to kill some Giants."


	23. Chapter 23: Heavens Above

**Chapter Twenty Three**

**Heavens Above**

We exited out of a small door of a small temple. There was no doubt about it we were in Olympus.

Temples. Statues. Monuments. Marble, Gold. It looked like an amalgam of Rome, Ancient Greece and New York City, and it was quiet. Very quiet.

"Where is everyone?" Annabeth wondered aloud.

"Wars on multiple fronts, I guess." I replied, not being sure of anything.

A wind spirit floated past.

"Excuse me!" Annabeth shouted. The spirit hovered for a second and floated over.

"Yes?" Can you help us?

"How would I know that, I don't know who you are or what you want, so what was the point of your question again? The spirit asked.

"Um sorry, Were demigods. Where is everyone?" Annabeth continued.

"How is me telling you that going to help you?"

"We need information, can you give it to us?" Annabeth tried a different tack.

"I don't know until you ask me whether I know the answer or not so I can't answer your question." The intangible being said curtly, beginning to look bored with the conversation and starting to float away.

I jumped in. "I'm Percy Jackson, and I'd just like to say how much you resemble Calypso."

The being blushed. "Thank you, Percy Jackson for your kind words, have you met Calypso then?"

"Yes, twice and you are a match for her any day." I announced. Annabeth looked at me strangely.

"I see her often you know, I deliver messages on the wind. I am Mellie, an Aura of the court of Aeolus." The Aura responded looking friendlier.

"A wind nymph who is a messenger for the master of the four winds." Annabeth whispered in my ear. I nodded.

"Nice to meet you Mellie, why is it so quiet around here?" I said, making sure to clarify my questions properly.

"The war I suppose. Did you know the Titans are rising?"

"Yes we knew that Mellie, do you know about the giants?"

"Giants?"

"The Two Giants blockading the New York Entrance to Olympus."

"Oh my, really? I know nothing of Olympus news I'm afraid, I'm only a messenger for Aeolus, he's thinking of joining Kronos you know."

"Is he? That would be a shame. Mellie, can you tell me where Hermes Temple is please?" I asked remembering Hermes request.

"Of course! As a messenger, we all know there our god resides." And she pointed a translucent arm towards a temple with a giant Caduceus projecting into the air.

"I should have known." I grumble. "Thank you for your assistance Mellie and may I say what a good Aura you are to help us demigods. Try and keep Aeolus straight won't you?"

"Oh I love demigods, especially satyrs, they make me go all breezy! Good luck in your quest!" and with that she floated off singing to herself.

"Getting confident with the girls now, huh?" Annabeth asked.

"If I can tame you two, I can do anything" I answered smugly, receiving a punch in both arms for my trouble. "Oww, that hurt!"

"Respect Mr Jackson, is earned." Thalia answered.

"So you want to see Hermes? You met him in Ogygia I assume?" Annabeth enquired.

"Yes." Looking at the floor knowing I'd been caught in one of my lies. "He wants to see us."

"I guess we can't turn down a god can we?" She replied.

"I guess we can't." I agreed.

We wandered through the seemingly abandoned parades, seeing only a few hurried satyrs and nymphs, not stopping to admire the stunning architecture, which surprised me as Annabeth was normally obsessed with it. She really has changed a lot on this quest, we all have, I thought to myself.

Hermes Temple was as ornate as any earth cathedral and much bigger, with a caduceus spire which must have risen over a thousand feet above the domed pinnacle.

"Hmm, interesting contrast of styles." Annabeth mused. "A clearly sixteenth century Palladian style entrance, but with a nineteenth century Gothic revival façade. The dome while being similar to an Italian duomo is more architecturally reminiscent of a Wren dome such as St Paul's…"

I smiled and stopped listening, just happy she hadn't completely changed.

"…not sure about the bell tower of reflective modern glass though, the contrast while initially jarring, creates…"

"Annabeth! Speak English! This ain't the Discovery Channel!" Thalia shouted.

"Sorry. I go off on autopilot sometimes. Anyway we are here. Hermes Temple."

"Do we knock?" I asked.

"On what? Annabeth asked. I looked up the steps and beyond the pillars to see the huge entrance was open with no actual doors.

"Oh. Not much crime here I guess." Feeling all the more seaweed brain again.

"I still love you, even when your brain falls asleep!" Annabeth said, kissing me as she walked past.

"Muppet." Thalia said rolling her eyes as she passed me.

I sighed and followed them up the steps to the Temple's entrance.

The inside was not what we expected. It was a sorting office, a switchboard and a data server all in one with a healthy dose of godly magic thrown in for good measure. There were letters, parcels, paper aeroplanes, computer disks, memory cards, and visible email all around the place. There were fibre optic lasers, wi-fi hotspot signs and webcams mingled together with owls and rainbows.

"Impressed?" A voice said behind us. I was the only one not to jump.

"Hi Lord Hermes." Annabeth said. "Very impressed indeed."

"This is my distribution centre and my main office. In here I came up with stamps and stagecoach mail, Air mail and e-mail. In my new office over there, I invented the internet, mobile phones and satellite TV. More recently I have given the world Facebook, Skype, Google and Amazon, although I sub-contact Amazon out to some Amazons!" Hermes laughed.

"Not Apple?" I joked.

"Gods above, no, that was Hades doing, profiteering bastard, he steals all my designs, and gets poor slaves in hell to build them for virtually no cost, and suckers people in with good looks and easy usage, but everyone with an Apple phone remains under the control of Hades. It's like a cult. He's the richest god in the land now, and has considerable influence over a percentage of the US population."

"Oh, that's good to know." I said, mentally reminding myself to never get an iPhone.

"Anyway shall we go to my inner sanctum, I think we need a talk."

We followed Hermes through his amazing facility until he showed us into a boardroom which was a smaller copy of the gods throne room with matching thrones. Hermes sat on his rock and goatskin throne and motioned for us to sit on a sofa on the middle of the thrones.

"Tell me everything. Leave nothing out."

We looked nervously at each other. This was not going to be comfortable.

We spoke for ages with Hermes butting in every so often. He was typing everything onto a Chromebook.

"_Prohecy from Rachel? Not an oracle? Naked? Haha."_

_"You were sent by Chiron and Dionysus? To the Chrysler Building?"_

_"Guidance from Athena? Hephestus? Triton? Warned about Aphrodite's Realm?"_

"_Moved through realms, Beckendorf shown Bunker 9? Left in Bunker 9?!"_

_"Spoke to Hera? Warned of Aphrodite and told you about the Giants?"_

_"Laelaps! I love that dog!"_

_"Zeus realm was Jason and the Argonauts? Really? That's cool!"_

_"My realm was a shopping mall? Honestly? No I don't remember, I'll explain later, keep going."_

_"Dirty dreams huh, yeah she does that, Annabeth. You too Percy? Why didn't you tell me earlier! Leave nothing out!"_

_"Faked death huh? That's nasty, I'm sorry you were put through that."_

_"Hades had a realm? That's horrible. They gave you a tour?!"_

_"Dionysus realm sounded quite fun actually!"_

_"Ah here we are. She made you do it naked? X-Factor! I invented that, I'm not too proud to admit it! Idea stealing witch! Naked on stage! She really put you through the ringer!_

_"You're going to do things like that, you are young, naked and being lead into it! Don't worry, I'm not a prude."_

_"She used my son!" That really pisses me off to no end!"_

_"Ogygia, that's where we met right? That must have been tough with Calypso."_

_"Aphrodite likes her orgies. Ben Affleck, really? Haha!"_

_"Here we go, the serious stuff. Just the basics please, that was too much detail! Forced lesbian sex. Check."_

_"At least you sounded like you enjoyed that bit!"_

_"NO, SHE DIDN'T, Gods above Thalia, Artemis is going to be pissed three ways from Sunday! That is some bad news, worse than you think."_

"And that's it, everything up until now." I told him.

"Shut your eyes will you?" We did quickly, knowing he was going to assume his godly form. "Back in a second."

A second later he walked through the door. "You can open them again you know."

"Huh? What was that for?" Annabeth asked.

"I've been asking some questions. I work fast, and the answers I got were not encouraging."

A beep went off in his pocket. He took out a mobile phone (with a picture of George and Martha on it) and looked at it and frowned. "This isn't getting any better."

"What's going on, Hermes?" Annabeth asked looking slightly worried now. Anything that worries a god is worth worrying about.

"I'm fully not sure yet. I'm going to have to call in Apollo for this I think."

"Wait!" Annabeth shouted. "Can't you answer some of our questions for us first?"

Hermes looked up from his phone, and sighed.

"Ok, for what it's worth, Annabeth, I'll answer some questions, but be brief please."

Annabeth nodded and gave me a quick look.

"Why is it so quiet here in Olympus?"

"The war has begun Annabeth, it may not seem like it on Earth, but we are fighting. Poseidon is fully caught up with events under the sea. The titan Oceanus is attacking with full force and every sea god, nymph, spirit or Cyclops is down fighting for Poseidon. It's a realm we other gods can do little to help him, so he is on his own."

I looked at the floor. I really wanted to help my dad.

"You can't help, Percy." Hermes said, reading my mind. "Oceanus is too bigger a foe for you to help with."

I nodded gravely. I still felt bad though.

"It's a smart move by Kronos, removing our second strongest God from the game."

Hermes looked at Thalia.

"Artemis is out hunting demons with her handmaidens. She doesn't know about you yet."

Thalia burst into tears. "I-I'm so s-scared Hermes, of what she is going to do! I don't know where my path lies now!"

"You will find your path, daughter of Zeus, as for Artemis, I'd fear for Aphrodite rather than yourself. While she has never been the most flexible or forgiving, she will never be vengeful on the innocent. She will be sad for you, but she will rage about how it happened"

Thalia sniffed and gave a small nod.

"Right where was I? Ah yes the war. Athena is out on the frontlines planning strategy and networking between gods and their helpers. It will be her responsibility to find a way to defeat Typhon."

I cringed at the mention of the name. I released him in the Labyrinth.

"Again, don't feel bad Percy, Typhon's escape was foretold. It would of happen with or without your presence so don't beat yourself up about it.

"Is he as bad as they say?" I asked.

"Worse probably. He nearly beat us last time. Even if the Titans win, they will have trouble controlling their pet."

"What about the other gods?" Annabeth asked.

Hermes through his hands up in the air.

"Who knows! Ares fights when he likes, he cares nothing for our fates, wanting chaos and death to rule. Demeter runs away to her daughter in the underworld. She is too far detached from anyone to help or care now. Hephaestus is constructing war weapons and another prison for Typhon, should we catch him, but he is not fighting. Dionysus does what he can, and helps the demigods, but he is the god of wine and not really cut out for war. Hera does her own thing, she always has something going on, like wheels within wheels, and she doesn't share with anyone but Zeus. The big boss is leading the fight of course, but he is doing it his way, with might rather than cunning, and is as usual ignoring the little people, casting them aside as insignificant. I guess he just doesn't learn from his mistakes. Hades is Hades, he won't help, but just maybe he'll realise he has as much to lose as any of us. Hestia looks after Olympus, but as a caretaker rather than a defender."

Hermes gave another sigh, but then smiled at us.

Apollo on the other hand is fighting on all fronts, like myself. He is a mighty warrior, and a cunning strategist, and he takes into account all the chess pieces on the board, including the pawns. He has been keeping an eye on Typhon, Aeolus, my son Luke on the Andromeda, Camp Half-Blood, The titan Krios at Mount Othrys in California, all the minor gods and The Legion.

"The Legion?" Annabeth enquired.

Hermes for a brief second looked a little panicked, but caught himself quickly.

"A group of warriors, who worship Ares, I wouldn't worry about them, but we keep an eye on them."

"What about Aphrodite?" I asked.

"The million dollar question, young Jackson. I must say I have no idea as to her plans, or what she is trying to accomplish, but my godly senses are telling me that it is bad. Very bad indeed.

"Did she send us on this quest then?" I asked, more curious than ever.

"Only the Oracle can give quests. Rachel is not an Oracle. Yet. She may become one in the future, but the old curse is on the current Oracle, set by Hades and I can't see him removing it anytime soon. Until he does, there cannot be a new Oracle."

"So if the Oracle is the only being to set quests, why did Dionysus and Chiron agree to it?"

Hermes looked us all in the eye. "They didn't."

"What? They did, I was there!" Thalia shouted.

"I asked them, they know nothing of this quest. Neither do Apollo, Athena, Hephaestus or Triton."

I imagine the shock on my face was the same as it was in Thalia and Annabeth's faces. We had been had, used, manipulated, but for what reason? Why were we here now? What did we have to do?

"There are no giants then?" I asked quietly

Hermes shook his head.

"We could have come through the front door?" I continued.

"Yes."

"We didn't have to come through the realms?"

"I know nothing of realms, Percy. That's why I was interested in my realm. I'd never seen it, I certainly didn't design it. The back door is just that. A second entrance into Olympus, less flashy and slightly better guarded, but it's just a back door nevertheless."

"We've been manipulated." I said with growing anger.

"Yes Percy, against all the rules we have about interaction with mortals."

"Aphrodite?" Annabeth asked.

"Clearly." Hermes replied.

The two girls looked as uncomfortable as I felt. How could we trust in the gods now with such a blatant breaking of everything they stood for? Gods are not supposed to meddle in the affairs of mortals, and are certainly not supposed to con them into unnecessary dangerous quests.

"What was her purpose for deceiving us?" Annabeth asked, getting angry now.

"I don't know. I can't see any clear purpose. To remove you from the Camp, or mortal world? To get you to Olympus for a certain time? To get you killed? To make you two fall for each other? To get back at Artemis? I simply can't see the purpose of this that would be important enough to break so many godly vows."

It was unsettling to see a god mired in uncertainty.

"You were going to call Apollo." Annabeth reminded him.

Hermes said nothing and pressed a button on his phone. Twenty seconds later a glowing golden chariot flew through the facility and landed outside the glass windowed throne room. A young man walked into the room with a glowing smile on his face. Looking comfortable in jeans, t-shirt and sunglasses he wandered over and greeted us all.

"Percy, my man! Lovely Annabeth! Thalia Grace! You can drive my chariot anytime you like!"

We all smiled at Apollo's happy disposition, but suspected it wouldn't last long. He clapped Hermes on the shoulder and sat in his throne of gold.

"What can I do for you lovely people on this gorgeous sunny day?"

"Apollo, we have a problem." Hermes announced.

"Ha! From the movie Apollo 13, I LOVE that movie!"

"Seriously, Apollo, we have a big problem. About what we discussed, it may be worse than that."

Apollo took of his sunglasses, and he suddenly looked older and less crazy.

"Tell me everything."

We did. Like we did with Hermes, and like Hermes he got more serious and more concerned as we told our story. Unlike Hermes, he did not interrupt us at all. He kept checking Hermes notes on his laptop. When we finished he lay back on his throne and rubbed his eyes.

"It's nothing to do with where you three are or were. It's about prophecies." Apollo announced much to our confusion.

"But it wasn't a real prophecy!" I stated.

"No, it wasn't, but I do have an eye on Rachel Elizabeth Dare, she has potential, a few other gods knew that including Aphrodite.

"So how can it be about a prophecy?" Annabeth asked.

"Let me explain a little about prophecy. I may the God of prophecy, but I do not create them, and I do not deliver them, I am merely the middleman so to speak. Prophecies come from Chaos itself to the mortals though its vassal, the Oracle, in order to move the mortal world down a path it finds desirable. I have a hand in choosing the Oracle and the wording of the prophecy, but that is about it. We gods have nothing to do with the prophecies and we are forbidden to interfere in any major way. The results of doing so could be worse than the implied result of the prophecy. Most prophecies are small in scope, but tend to have a bigger picture down the line. Great prophecies on the other hand involve the fate of the Gods directly, and we follow them with great interest, even if they can take millennia to come to fruition. Bizarrely the best way for the Gods to handle a prophecy is DO NOTHING AT ALL and they usually play themselves out. Yes, we can help them out here and there, but even that is dangerous and can have unpredictable results. The thing is we know a great prophecy is coming to a close this summer, we KNOW it, all the signs point towards it, and you three are a major part of it."

"So was Aphrodite trying to take us out of the big picture? Remove us from the great prophecy? For what purpose?" I asked, now getting quite worried indeed.

"Your basic assumption is correct Percy, as to Aphrodite's purpose, I am at a loss." Apollo replied.

"So we go back to Camp Half-Blood and prepare for the year like nothing happened and get the prophecy back on track, right?" Thalia asked. "Apart from me of course." She continued glumly.

"Artemis will forgive you Thalia, but she won't forgive Aphrodite, and I cannot see an easy way out for you, within the great prophecy situation. As for you two, no you can't just go back to camp and act like you were. You are not like you were, you are completely different people to those who left on this quest, and will therefore take different decisions at different times, derailing the prophecy with every different move made, especially with the news that Annabeth is Pregnant." Apollo announced, like it was an everyday thing.

"WHAT!" Annabeth screamed, holding her belly. It took me a few seconds to register what Apollo had just said. I looked at Annabeth with shock. How could this be? Annabeth was only sixteen, I was still only fifteen, and I was going to be a father? With a war coming up in the near future? Annabeth couldn't play a part in a war if she was eight months pregnant. We all look shocked now. I could see Annabeth was trying not to cry for my sake, but not succeeding. Thalia and I hugged her from either side.

"Clarisse and the Stolls are going to have a field day. I mumbled.

"Fuck Clarisse Percy, we've destroyed the great prophecy! She cried back at me.

"It's worse than that, I'm afraid." Apollo broke in.

We looked at him with horror.

"Not only has the Great prophecy been irreparably damaged, but somehow leaving Beckendorf in Bunker 9 with the bronze dragon, has inexplicably started a second great prophecy, that will come to a head only shortly after the first."

"What does that mean?" I asked, clinging on the Annabeth. Apollo looked to the heavens.

"If the Gods are somehow not completely destroyed by the Titans this summer or sooner, Destiny will get another shot a few years later."


	24. Chapter 24: Damage Control

**Chapter Twenty Four**

**Damage Control**

"So what are you telling us? The Gods are fucked?" Thalia enquired rather indelicately.

"Not necessarily." Apollo went on, seemingly unfazed by Thalia's profanity and directness. "The prophecy will in the end come down to one decision, that must be made, and it might somehow still be made but the chances of that happening lessen all the time."

"How so?" Thalia continued.

"For example if the prophecy comes down do a decision made by Percy, he will take into account his love for you and his child into the decision making process. This would not have happened before. If it's down to you Annabeth, every choice you make will be made to protect your unborn child. You might not even get to the- we'll call it the 'shatterpoint' of the prophecy, the point of no return, the decision or action that changes everything. Great prophecies are always guiding a hero to its shatterpoint and hope they make the right decision, or not, as the path the hero follows teaches them indirectly what must be done. And the correct decision nearly always gets made. We may not get to a shatterpoint now, leaving the future up in the air. But Chaos will not allow this to happen. Interfere with a prophecy is the worst thing you can do and bad luck will strike us all down. Chaos wanted the Gods to win this war over the more powerful Titans, so it gave us a way out with a great prophecy, but that door has been shut. We now have to beat a superior foe with no luck, no help and no hope."

"Then we must get this prophecy back on track." Stated Hermes. "Who can we trust?"

"Not Zeus, that's for sure, he has never believed in dealing with mortals." Apollo said bitterly.

"We can bring in Dionysus, to help with the Camp Half-Blood problem and Athena to put the plan back on track. We may need the help of Hephaestus and Artemis should be informed also, because of Thalia."

"What about Poseidon?" I enquired.

"He's too busy Percy, not even Hermes here can get hold of him at the moment."

"I'll contact the others." Hermes said, reaching for his phone.

We mortals went for a walk around Hermes facility. I held tightly onto Annabeth's hand as we walked along, past Hermes computer systems.

"Artemis is gonna be pissed." Thalia said apprehensively. "I'm not looking forward to that meeting."

"That's nothing compared to my mom when she finds out I've been knocked up by a Poseidon boy." Annabeth said sounding really quite scared. Athena and Poseidon really didn't get on.

"Athena and Apollo will find a way out of this." I said, optimistically.

"I'm not so sure Percy." Annabeth answered. "We are different people now. We've also learnt more things, such as your Earthquake power, Thalia's wind power or my owl transformation. Thalia can never become a virgin again either, so she can't fight with the Hunters of Artemis during the upcoming war, and we still don't know Aphrodite's purpose behind this."

We all fell silent.

"Well, well, if it isn't my favourite sea urchin! Sticking your wick in everything that doesn't belong to you!" Athena said angrily pointing at me. She was wearing a black and white business suit and she looked really angry.

"Mom!"

"Quiet Annabeth! You've done it now haven't you? Messed up the prophecy and I warned you, you are not worthy of my daughter!"

"MOM!"

"I said be QUIET! Well now it's down to me to clean up the mess made by a son of Poseidon, and not for the first time, and may not like some of my ideas, boy." With that Athena turned around and stomped of into the throne room.

"I told you she'd be angry." Annabeth said looking dejected.

"Don't worry, Annabeth, I'm kind of used to it by now. I think it's her way of challenging me to better things." I told her. "Shall we go back in?"

Annabeth nodded and Thalia looked more nervous than ever. Entering the throne room we saw Hermes, Apollo, Dionysus, Hephaestus and Athena seated in their thrones. Artemis looking like a teenage girl walked over to us and I couldn't look her in the eye. She hugged Thalia and kissed her gently on the cheek. Thalia was crying freely now.

"My champion! You have been wronged, and I will see it right, whatever the cost, and Aphrodite gets the biggest black mark in her book yet, and I will make her pay, trust me young one, I will see it done!" Artemis sounded deadly to me, like a coiled snake, but Thalia just fell into her arms sobbing.

Artemis looked at me. "You are lucky I don't strike you down right now, boy."

"Sister! Enough, please, you know the circumstances!" Apollo snapped. Artemis gave me one final evil look before wiping Thalia's tears and retiring to her throne.

"Athena." Hermes announced. "You have studied the data, can you find a way out?"

"There is a way." She proclaimed loudly. "Although it will not be to everyone's liking." She said looking at me, and a blade of ice shot down my spine.

"First we must find Aphrodite, otherwise she may work against everything that we do. Artemis?"

"I'll find her, I'll have every hunter, spirit and animal on the lookout!" Artemis said resolutely.

"Hephaestus, we need a prison for a love goddess, what have you got?"

"I've designed specialist prisons for all of you buggers years ago, but this one is my best. Only the best for my cheating wife! It's designed to hold off Ares too, he'll try and free her of course. Get the witch to me and she'll be going nowhere!" Hephaestus said laughing. It seemed like his wish came true, and his beard exploded into flames with his gleeful laughter.

"Okay, that's good. Dionysus, Apollo has methods for minor memory replacement, can you implement them at Camp Half-Blood?"

"In what fashion, does the Wisdom Goddess require memory alterations? This is a big intervention." Dionysus asked delicately.

"Just minor ones, for the campers to forget about the fake prophecy and the quest. Chiron will play ball and a potion can be put in the food for the others."

"No problem. I'm getting fed up of the Stoll brothers jokes about ginger muff anyhow."

"Right, you three." She said looking at us. "Find the Beckendorf boy and the satyr and convince them to come with you to Olympus for a time. The Beckendorf boy must give up the dragon, and the Satyr must return Laelaps. Do NOT tell them the whole story. Do not use Iris messaging, as Aphrodite can intercept them. Got it?" We nodded our understanding. "Talk to no-one of this, only to persons in this room. Co-ordinate with Hermes, now off you go!" She said, dismissing us completely.

We walked out of the Temple and found are way towards the entrance of Olympus.

"I guess we go to the camp." I said feeling numb.

"How do we get there?" Thalia asked. "We've got no money."

"Hippocampi from the river will take us there." I said.

We said nothing else. We silently took the lift down to Manhattan and walked outside. It was cold and snowing. No one gave us a second glance in our armour, I was glad the mist was still working. I pointed toward the East River and we crossed 5th Avenue and followed East 34th Street until we met the river. I mentally commanded the hippocampi to arrive.

"Are you sure this is a good idea Percy it's freezing." Thalia asked.

"I'll keep the water off, don't worry."

"Hello, Rainbow!" I said when a horse-like head popped of the river. "Can you take us to the camp?"

A happy whinny in reply. We climbed on and I focused on keeping us all dry. It was dark by the time we arrived at camp and we wandered up towards the cabins.

"Right, we have to find Becks and Grover." Thalia said.

"No we don't Thalia, We get a good night's sleep first. I doubt if we've had one in weeks." I said in a tone of voice to not brook any dissent.

Are you going to the Athena cabin, Annabeth?" Thalia asked

"No."

"But camp rules say-" Thalia started.

"I don't give a shit about camp rules Thalia, we have to fix the bloody world, so I'm not going to be bothered about treading on a few toes, and I ain't answering all their bloody questions, nosey bastards. I'll stay with the father of my child thank you!"

My heart swelled with love for this incredible women and I gripped her hand tight.

"I'm sorry Annabeth, I didn't mean-" Thalia said before Annabeth interrupted again.

"No, I'm sorry Thalia, but the stuff that's happened in the last day has taken it out of me somewhat. I shouldn't have snapped. I'll be staying with Percy. I don't want to talk to my cabin mates, I don't know if the memory potion has been used yet. Percy lives alone, as do you."

"Thanks for reminding me." Thalia said, stomping off to cabin one.

"Thalia!" Annabeth started to go after her, but I held her hand tight.

"Let her go, Annabeth, her life has been turned inside out worse than yours."

I pulled her along with me and entered Poseidon's cabin and closed the door. I checked to see if Tyson was around, but his bed was clean and his stuff gone. I guessed he was at the underwater forges again. I turned to face Annabeth and kissed her like I had never done before. Calypso's charm still worked and we mingled our thoughts until they reached one unified agreement that all we wanted right now was each other. We ripped at each other clothes and Armour in a desperation neither of us had felt before, tripping over ourselves until we are naked. I can't wait very long and turn her to face a pillar while I take her from behind. She starts making appreciative noises and I go faster and harder.

"Can I come in? I was- oh sorry!" Thalia said as she saw us right in front of her. "I'll go."

"Don't go Thalia!" I shout out, I don't know why. I don't stop what I am doing. It's clear Annabeth doesn't want me to stop either. Thalia watching really turns me on and I can't last long. When finished we look around and find Thalia crying on the floor.

"I'm-m s-so l-lonley!" She splutters through the sobs. We reach out to her and envelop her in a hug.

"Oh Thalia!" Annabeth sobs into her shoulder.

"I've l-lost everyone! I'm so alone!"

"No Thalia, not alone, you have us." I whisper into her ear.

Annabeth and I gently remove her clothes and guide her to the shower room. I washed her body while Annabeth gently washes her hair. I dry her off and we lead her to the bed and lay her between us, we cuddle her from both sides until she eventually drops off. I look at Annabeth over Thalia's shoulder and I can see even she doesn't have a strategy for this. She bites her bottom lip. It's so sexy. We fell asleep pretty quickly.

I wake up to find both the girls have got up and left. I put on an orange t-shirt and shorts (it's always summer at camp) and go out to find them. Will Solace waved at me as he came over.

"Hi Will."

"Percy. You playing capture the flag today?"

"No Will, too many chores!"

"Oh, okay see you at dinner!"

"See you then, Will."

I guess the magic potion has been activated. He asked nothing about the quest. I saw the girls talking to Silena and wandered over.

"Silena, Thalia, Annabeth." I say in greeting

"Hi Percy, you're looking might fine today!" said Silena. Annabeth doesn't even frown. This is new Annabeth!

"Thanks Sil, how's Charlie?"

"I've got to say he's been a bit weird lately, he's disappeared a few times and is always working on something. War machines I guess, he's worried about the war."

"Is he around?" I ask

"He's in Vegas, Caesar's Palace." Annabeth answers. Family holiday.

"Nice!" I say.

Shit.

"Lucky boy! Anyway I've got to go, cabin inspection soon!" Silena says, darting off.

"How the hell in Zeus' butthole do we get to Vegas without attracting attention or telling anyone what were up to?" I ask the girls.

"I have no idea Percy." Answers Annabeth.

"I'm going to the forest to find Grover, see if you can find Mr D or something." I said as I stomped of towards the forest. I would be glad to see Grover again. But I could only find Leneus.

"Where's Grover?"

"That mad satyr friend of yours has disappeared on another quest to spread Pan's supposed final words. He should be back tomorrow. Try and keep him under control will you?" Leneus was his same cantankerous self.

"They were his final words, Leneus, I was there."

"Bah!" He shouted before storming off. Same old Leneus.

I was stuck. No Grover, no Beckendorf. No one I could ask for help. I wandered through the forest, looking for some inspiration, and to my surprise, it found me.

"Hullo Percy!" A voice said in my ear.

"Fuck!" I shouted, jumping forward and trying to grab my non-existent sword. A skinny black clad walks past me and sits down on a log and rests his hands on his huge black sword.

"Nico, don't creep up on people like that!" I shouted, annoyed someone had got so close to me without me noticing. Even if it was Nico de Angelo, son of Hades.

"Ha ha Percy, you shit yourself!"

"I did not!"

"You jumped a fucking mile!" Nico laughed himself silly.

"Maybe a little. What are you doing here?" I asked.

"I came to see if you thought about our little deal. Have you?" He asked me.

"Not recently Nico, I've been kinda busy. Do you have all the details yet?"

"I think I'm just about there."

"Just about isn't good enough Nico, I'm not risking my life in the Styx unless you are sure. When you are sure, and you can prove the process, let me know, I'll be all ears." I told him.

Nico nodded slowly and stood up. "Well, until next time, I've a dog to catch."

"Wait! You still have Mrs O'Leary?" I asked with some hope returning.

"Sure, who else is going to look after her? A giant Hellhound!"

"I need her Nico, desperately. I have to get to Vegas without anyone knowing."

"Ohh, Tell me more."

"I can't right now Nico, but it's important. Quest important." I plead with him.

"Gonna be long?" Nico enquires.

"A few hours, a day at most."

"Okay then, but you'll owe me one." He tells me. I nod in agreement. Nico whistled into the trees and a hound the size of a van appeared in front of me and gave me a huge slobbery lick.

"Uhh! God to see you again too, girl." I said, as I wipe the drool off my face. I climb onto her back.

"By the way Nico, I was in Asphodel Fields recently- don't ask! And I came across a nice young girl who said she was the daughter of Hades." I told him, hoping Nico could help that nice young girl who helped us.

"Not Bianca?" He looked at me with a little hope.

"I'm afraid not Nico, Her name was Hazel Levesque and she talked to us showed us to the wall of Erebos and said she was Hades daughter, so couldn't lose her mind. She forwent Elysium to save her mother from the fields of Punishment. I think you could help her Nico, she's your godly sister."

"I'll look into it." He told me, but I could see in his eyes he was sold.

I nodded.

"Mrs O'Leary, Las Vegas, Nevada please. Caesars Palace." I stated loudly

Everything went black.

We appeared on the strip right outside a gaudy monstrosity I assumed was Caesar's Palace. I noticed Mrs O'Leary looked tired, but conveniently landed in a parking space. The mist would make people see a SUV or something. I could already sense bad things around, more than New York that was for certain. Maybe it was because I was so far west. I uncapped Riptide and carried it beside me to be safe, knowing everyone else would see something else.

I walked into the reception, ignoring the people dressed up as Romans and the noisy slots in the distance and walked straight to a free receptionist.

"Hi welcome to Caesar's Palace how can I help you today?" She smiled and said her lines.

"Hi! My friend Charlie Beckendorf is staying here at the moment and I've come to surprise him!" I said letting the receptionist do the work.

"You want to know his room number?"

"Or phone number." I told her, not wanting to look too forward.

"What's the booking under?" She enquired.

"Sorry?"

"Who's name is the room under?"

"Um, Mrs Beckendorf?"

She sighed."I'll just check for Beckendorfs shall I?" She tapped away at her computer.

"You are in luck just one Beckendorf in the register, two single bed apartment, Maggie and Charles, room 8041. Just type the room number into any reception phone to call the room."

"Thank you Miss!" I said excitedly.

I went to the nearest phone and typed 8041. And waited. And nothing. They weren't in. Why would they be? I thought to myself at ten in the morning. I wandered out to see some of the sights. I knew the Bellagio fountains were just down the strip and they were free, so I made my way down.

Just as the first fountain show was finishing, a young Hispanic teenager pointed at my sword.

"Why you carrying that? Ain't it illegal or something to carry that sorta sword?"

"You can see my sword?" I asked incredulously. The kid was fidgety I noticed, playing with a paperclip in his hands, changing its shape to quick for me not notice.

"I ain't blind! Hey Pipes can you see this kid's sword?" He shouted at a cute looking girl with messy hair and native Indian clothes.

"I told you, don't call me that Leo!" She came over and punched him in the arm.

"Hey why you carrying that sword?" she said and to my amazement I answered. She had a gorgeous voice.

"It's the weapon of a demigod." I said, much to my disgust.

"What's a demigod?" She asked in her lovely voice.

"The mortal child of a god and mortal." I answered, getting really confused now.

"And you are one of these demigods?"

"Well…" I shook my head and realised what was happening. She was charmspeaking me. I'd had some trouble with Drew Tanaka from the Aphrodite cabin and had learned to resist it, once I recognised it. Piper must be a demigod, and probably Leo too, considering his seeing through the mist and the little helicopter he had made from a paperclip, thinking I hadn't noticed. Time to employ a trick Thalia showed me a few days ago. I clicked my fingers and thought with all my might, it's not a sword it's a turkey leg, I am not a demigod, and I am your friend. I manipulated the mist for them.

"Where did you get that turkey leg then ummm." Leo said

"Percy." I told him

"Oh yeh, Percy."

"There's a vendor around the corner." I told them. "Where were you from again?" I asked.

"Oh were here visiting with the wilderness school, they let us out occasionally. I'm Leo by the way, Leo Valdez, and this beauty Queen is Piper Mclean"

"Any relation to the movie star? You look a bit like him."

She went a shade of red and looked really angry. "Would I be in Wilderness school if my dad was a movie star?" She said angrily.

"I guess not."

I clicked my fingers again. 'Forget me.' Their eyes glazed over and I wandered off before they realised what was going on. I would have to tell the satyrs about this little meeting.

I wandered back to the hotel, walked around for a bit (they wouldn't let me in the casino) and found myself in a parking lot out the back of the hotel. I'd had a danger sense since I'd got here, and it seemed I'd been led to where I was currently standing, but I couldn't figure out what it was. A van pulled into the lot and drove just passed me and parked. I watched it with curiosity, knowing something was about to happen. Then the back of the van opened and I knew I was in trouble. It wasn't the presence of a Minotaur that scared me, I'd beaten him twice already. It was the blond guy with him.

"Hello Percy Jackson, No friends or water here." He said pointing is dual metal sword at me.

"Luke Castellan, or should I say Kronos."

At least he was dressed this time, was all I could think to myself, before I lifted my sword and charged at him as fast as I could run.


	25. Chapter 25: Endgame

**Chapter Twenty Five**

**Endgame**

This was the craziest thing I'd ever done. I had no armour, no backup, no water and I was facing one formidable foe and one completely indestructible one. One or the other would be bad enough and I knew in my heart I had no chance of victory. Luke had the curse of Achilles, rendering him impervious to injury and I didn't have any such advantages, but I had to try. The prophecy may be dead or dying, but if I killed Luke here then the prophecy would be irrelevant, but first I had to get through the bull man in his tighty-whities.

"Come on then you ugly bastard, I beat you when I was twelve!" I screamed sprinting at him. He sprinted at me, bellowing loudly. He swung at me with his meaty left fist, with a punch that would have taken my head clean off if it had connected. It didn't. I rolled to his right and slashed Riptide at his right thigh, only to find my sword jammed stiff and wrenched from my grasp. A sudden backhand from the beast threw be backwards into the side of the van, buckling its side inwards. I slid to the floor, knowing instantly that I had broken ribs and a concussion. I looked up at the Minotaur, to see him holding my sword by its blade in his hand. He was wearing celestial bronze gauntlets! No wonder he could grab my sword, and his strength was far superior to mine.

Luke walked up clapping slowly.

"Even monsters can learn, Jackson." He sneered. "Do it Beast!" He ordered the Minotaur.

I watched in horror as he held my sword from both ends, and with a mighty bellow, head butted its flat side. With a crack of power, Riptide split into two pieces and was unceremoniously dumped on the floor, where it transformed itself into a broken ballpoint pen. I tried to stand up, only to receive a punch in my face for my trouble. I saw stars as I felt my nose break in a shower of blood. I fell back to the floor where the Minotaur proceeded to stomp on my ankle. I heard the crack and knew I was finished. Luke walked up to me and held out his sword Backbiter.

"Any last requests Jackson?"

I spat a gob of blood onto his shoe. He angrily recoiled and then thrust his sword into my shoulder. I screamed as the sword, both magical and mortal burnt its way through my flesh. In desperation, I madly searched for any water in the area and could only find the radiator in the truck. In my agony I ripped the radiator through the side of the cab and straight into Luke's head, knocking him clean across the car park. The Minotaur bellowed loudly lifting his hoof up to mash my head flat, before his head vanished in a ball of fire, followed by the rest of him. I looked up in astonishment as the smoke cleared.

Charles Beckendorf. Holding a huge bronze sledgehammer.

"Never leave home without it. Shit Percy, you're a mess." I said looking concerned.

"Luge or Kwonos is ower there, gud me do wader!" I said through my bloody broken nose. Charles nodded and put his hammer away, and picked me up with Backbiter which was still stuck through my shoulder. He ran to the strip and towards the Bellagio, where he unceremoniously dumped me into the famous fountain pool.

The sword shot out of my shoulder and I could feel the pain dissipate and my body start to knit back together. My ankle clicked back into place and I stood up and picked up Luke's sword. I noticed with grim amusement that my pen, even when broken returned to my pocket. I saw Luke heading our way, and stop. He mouthed the words 'Next time Jackson' and disappeared in a blur.

"Why did he leave?" Beckendorf asked.

"Invulnerable or not, he's not going to take both of us on, when I have his sword and am standing in water. He chooses his battles wisely."

"We need to take out that ship of his." Beckendorf stated.

"The Princess Andromeda? It might help.

"I'll think of something. What are you here for anyway Percy?"

"You, Charlie, the Gods need us at Olympus, can you come?" I asked

"Sure! I'll Iris message my mom! Is it about the quest? How do we get back?

"Yes it's about the quest, and we get back via hellhound air." I told him. "I'm afraid you may have to give up the dragon and Bunker 9, it's not for our use, by godly decree."

Beckendorf looked crestfallen. "I've just adapted the dragon's control disk to connect to my thoughts and I was gonna put the wings back on!"

"Sorry Charlie, no choice." I commiserated.

He shrugged and we walked off to find Mrs O'Leary who was conveniently where I left her. I stuck Backbiter down a storm drain and climbed on with Charles.

"Camp Half-Blood forest please. Hold on Charlie and don't puke on me."

We appeared in the forest, to find Grover waiting for us.

"Perrrcy!" he shouted, slapping me on the back. I winced in pain. I needed some nectar.

"G-Man! Not so hard! Been looking for you."

"Leneus told me, I saw Nico too. I knew you'd be back soon."

"Well we have to go to Olympus, Me, You, Charlie, Annabeth and Thalia. And we have to take Laelaps."

"I know Percy, I've seen Annabeth and Mr D, and they've already taken Laelaps."

"Well, that helps I suppose." I shrugged. "Let's go find the others."

"By the way Grover, I found some unclaimed demigods out west. In Vegas"

"Yeah? We don't normally go far west, too dangerous, but I can get Gleeson Hedge to have a look. The mad goat has no fear whatsoever. Who are they?"

"They were at a wilderness school and their names were Leo Valdez and Piper Maclean. That's all I know. Potential Hephaestus and Aphrodite kids by their talents."

"That should be enough to find them. I'll get Hedge on it, cheers Percy!"

The three of us wandered down to the Big House, and we found Mr D and Hermes waiting with Thalia and Annabeth.

"Percy! What happened?" Annabeth ran to me but stopped short. I had forgotten I was injured and covered in blood. I told them the story, and gave Hermes my broken pen-sword. Annabeth gave Charlie a big hug, and got me some nectar and Ambrosia.

"I'm sure Hephaestus can fix your sword, Percy. In fact he must, it's a crucial chess piece." Hermes told me.

"What else is going on?" I ask.

"We know a few more things." Dionysus answered. "Charles Beckendorf, We needed you here because you went on the recent quest, but looking into the prophecies a bit we have discovered that you play little part in it, and can go. You can even keep the dragon, but we must remove your knowledge of Bunker 9 and the recent quest.

"Do I have a choice?" He asked.

"No."

"Do it then."

"Drink this wine, and go to your cabin. You won't remember this in the morning." Dionysus handed him a glass of wine. Charlie drank it with a pinched look on his face and said his goodbyes.

"Grover, we need to do a minor memory intervention with you too, we can use nature magic and your memories of the quest will fade. Apollo gave me this to give you." Dionysus said as he handed a piece of paper to Grover. "Go to a remote part of the forest and play this tune on your reed pipes."

Grover nodded sagely and took his leave. "See you soon Percy!"

"You three were more important to the prophecy and were changed more by the quest, you will need to come to Olympus for some retraining." We nodded. We knew that already.

"Did you catch Aphrodite?" Annabeth asked.

"Yes. Yes we did." Hermes said without looking at us. "Shall we go see?"

The god transported us straight to Olympus and into what could only be Hephaestus Temple. Or giant factory is how I would have described it. Boeing's airliner factory in Seattle, the biggest in the world, would have seemed like a small office in this place. Hephaestus, like Hermes also had a mock throne room and in the middle of this one was a giant bronze cage containing one beautiful looking woman. Aphrodite.

"Here, drink this, you three." Hermes gave us all a potion. "It will prevent love magic being used on you." We drank greedily. I didn't want her to manipulate me ever again.

Athena, Artemis, Apollo, Hephaestus and Dionysus were already sat on their thrones, Hermes came in with us and sat us on chairs at the end of the U-shape the thrones were in, before taking his own throne. Athena spoke first.

"Aphrodite, you have been charged with treason against the Gods, how do you plead?"

"Guilty darlings, how could I deny it?"

"You admit it?"

"Yes, why not, you already know."

"You wanted to change the great prophecy?" Apollo asked.

"No I wanted to change to a new great prophecy." Aphrodite responded.

"There is no new great prophecy!" Apollo thundered.

"Not to the Gods, maybe, but those lovely Titans have one too you know."

"How do you know of this?"

"Prometheus, came to me with a very interesting proposal, he's a lovely deity by the way. Anyway his proposal was that a child of mortal children of Poseidon and Athena, born on the day of reckoning, will be the catalyst for the end of the big three Gods, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. The Titans would fill the power vacuum, with us having no chance against their full might. If we co-operated, we could keep our realms under the oversight of the Titans, and the child will grow up to be a God of desire and my natural partner. With Kronos resurrected and Typhon on his way, I thought this would be the best option for us. We've been dominated by the big three for far too long!"

"You know we won't let that happen." Apollo snarled angrily.

"Yes. It can't happen now, it had to be done without the God's knowledge." Aphrodite stated, with no shame whatsoever." I can however help get the great prophecy back on track."

"How so?" Hermes enquired.

"Thalia Grace for instance, I can remove her love of boys and recalibrate her memory to fit this whole saga in with a Hunter Quest. She will have no recall of her interactions with Percy Jackson, she will be a psychological virgin, even if she isn't a physical one. The prime requisite for a cross legged frigid girl like Artemis like to hang around with.

"Do it! Do it now! Thalia cried.

"I can't my dear, you have had one of Hermes twenty-four hour potions." You'll just have to wait."

"What do you want out of all this, Aphrodite?" Asked Athena.

"What can you do to me really? You can't kill me, and you can't imprison me forever, Zeus, Hera and Ares won't hear of it." You will just have to let me be, I'll accept you will keep a closer eye on me, but Gods will be Gods. I'll assist to get the prophecy back on track, and no one needs to know any more."

Annabeth was hugging Thalia who was in tears. Artemis came over and took her from Annabeth.

"Do you renounce boys, Thalia?" She asked.

"Yes! Yes I do!" Please take me back! She cried. Annabeth was in tears watching her friend in such anguish.

"Come with me, Thalia, and we will cleanse your soul and your mind, and take this burden from you."

"Thank you! My lady, Thank you! She cried as she followed Artemis out of the room without a backward glance. I was starting to get worried. There was a pattern forming here.

"Now you two are the real difficulty." Athena told us.

"There is a possible prophecy that says your child will be the destruction of the big three. If Zeus, Hades or even Poseidon discover this, they won't hesitate to kill Annabeth and her child."

I was shocked, and Annabeth collapsed to her knees.

"Poseidon would kill his own grandson?" I asked dumbfounded.

"Gods are not human Percy, they will snuff their kids out in a microsecond if there is any risk to themselves. Your father is no different. I am no different." Athena told us with no remorse whatsoever.

"Apollo? It's your turn. Athena walked away.

"Annabeth Chase, I'm very sorry to tell you this, but you can under no circumstances take that child to term." Apollo told her gently.

"I-I don't want an Abortion, I don't believe in them!" She said barely able to speak now.

"No, we don't do that here, but we can take the new life away from your body and raise it here with the gods. First we will delay any birth to prevent any dangerous prophecies from occurring, and then we give your child a godly birth and bring them up here, or in some other safe place."

"That's even worse!" Annabeth cried. "Taking my child away from me and raising it without me! How will I be able to function knowing my child is out there somewhere and doesn't even know its parents! That's just cruel!

"It's not cruel Annabeth because you will never know of it." Apollo looked down. The first time I'd seen a god look upset.

Annabeth just knelt there with her mouth open, and It took a few seconds to register in my brain what that statement meant. They were going to make us forget. Make us forget everything. Our adventures together, our love for each other, carefully honed by a love goddess, was at its peak. We were partners, lovers, complete soul mates, and future parents, and they were going to take it all away from us. Everything that made us who we were right now was being taken. I felt like an adult being kicked back to childhood. It was too much, and the tears started flowing as Annabeth looked me in the eyes. She has clearly thought the same thoughts as me and was taking the news just as badly.

"You will remember nothing after and including the Rachael Dare incident. Suitable back stories will be made up for you. It's the only way to save you lives, your child's life and the great prophecy."

I looked at Aphrodite with hatred.

"Don't hate me son of Poseidon, I have given you love as pure as anyone, and you won't remember the pain. I assure you the pair of you will find a different path to love. The second great prophecy, which you initiated, has said so."

"You have until morning together." Apollo announced and clapped his hands.

We found ourselves in what seemed like a five star apartment. We both sat on the bed, too numb to talk. I leaned over and wrapped my arms around her. She looked me in the eyes and kissed me gently on the lips, and for a brief second we shared our mutual anguish with each other.

"They're going to do it." She whispered. "They're killing our love."

"Yes."

"There's no other option is there?"

"No."

"There's no light at the end of the tunnel."

"Only the thought of going through the anguish of trying to go out with you again." I joked. She smiled briefly.

"Do you think we will end up together?"

"I have no doubt whatsoever. If Rachael doesn't get in the way." I said

"How so?" Annabeth asked, with no anger or envy.

"She likes me, Annabeth, and the old me wasn't always strong enough to fend her off. It's you I've always loved, and you used to go green with jealousy."

"I did not!"

"You were for half the quest, Annabeth!"

"Well maybe for a bit. I'll try and calm down a bit!"

"You won't remember trying to calm down."

"Oh yeah." She paused. "I feel so lost. I don't want to lose you Percy."

"You won't remember that either."

"Percy?"

"Yes?"

"We have a few more hours." Annabeth said, in a way which had no misinterpretation. I took her hand and walked her out onto the balcony, we were very high up, in a hot country somewhere, maybe Rio. I slowly peeled off her clothes and let her stand in front of me naked for a moment.

"You are so beautiful, Anna." I told her with tears in my eyes. I had been with her for a long time with none of us wearing a stitch of clothing, and I had memorised every curve and imperfection, and now I was trying to make sure I could keep her image in my brain when the time came. I wiped a tear from her cheek and ran my hand down her breasts until I reached her ass. I grabbed it and lifted her onto a stone table. I kissed my way down her body, eliciting moans of pleasure, before I kissed the little moon shaped birthmark she has on the inside of her upper thigh. I then decided to show her what Calypso taught me. I parted her legs and teased her with my tongue, she was already very wet and I relished the taste of her as she cried out in ecstasy. I kept going for a while, then I noticed the rainclouds above us and with a little Poseidon effort started a downpour. The warm rain lashed off of our bodies and added extra sensation, and Annabeth's moans got louder. I tried to pull away, but she wouldn't let me, imploring me to keep going. I did, noticing her body shake uncontrollably as I forced her to her climax, and as she came the sky pulsed with light and sound as lightning and thunder surrounded us. She finally let my head go, and she was gasping for breath.

"Did you do that thunder thing?" I asked her.

"I don't. Think. So." She gasped between breaths. "I hope not!"

"You okay?"

"That was fucking amazing, Jackson even better than leccy lips Thalia! And the rain! Perfect! Was that you?"

"Guilty as charged, Moony" I laughed

"Moony?"

"You have a cute birthmark in a private place, I named you for it!"

She playfully slapped the top of my head and scrambled uneasily to her feet and pulled my remaining wet clothes off, grabbed my erection and dragged me inside.

"Right, Big Boy, if we are being reset in a few hours, I want to have you for every second of it. Understand?"

I nodded slowly and smiled. She wasn't getting any arguments from me. And I was Big Boy!

"Get on the floor, Big Boy." She ordered. I complied immediately.

Annabeth climbed on top of me, and slid down onto me, so I was deep inside her. We never took our eyes off of each others, and suddenly I was scared, I didn't want to lose this. My rational brain took over and told me I wouldn't remember anyway, and I made the decision to enjoy my last few hours and not spend the whole time worrying.

We made love in every way possible in every place we could. In the shower, the balcony, the kitchen, the elevator, even the hotel foyer. The fire escape was thrilling, as was every time we got caught by someone. We had no fear whatsoever, it was like our own sexual Groundhog Day, only different because we were not going to repeat this. We eventually retired back to our room in exhaustion, only to find Apollo there waiting for us.

"It's time.

I was scared now. The thought of this process was like death to me. Considering how much I had changed this winter, it would literally be like a death. I didn't want to die! I didn't want to lose Anna! I wanted to live in this hotel room for the rest of my life! Fuck the prophecy!

I looked at my Mooney, she was biting her bottom lip again, god I find that sexy, but she nodded to me, as if to tell me don't worry, it's for the greater good. She reached for my hand and started breathing faster. I noticed my adrenalin had spiked, real fear, real sorrow, I must hold on for a few for seconds. Tears streamed down my face as Apollo reached for our heads.

"I love you Annabeth Chase!"

"I always will love you Percy Jackson!"

Apollo touched our foreheads and everything went dark.


	26. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"Well Charlie, you seem to have sorted out the Greek fire storage problem" I told Beckendorf in our secret war room in the Hephaestus cabin.

"I had to. The Princess Andromeda must be sunk, I'm surer of it than ever." He replied "Do you still plan on using the Hippocampi to get aboard? That part of the plan has some serious problems."

"I'm all too aware of them, Charlie, I'm actually thinking of using Blackjack," I mused.

"Your Pegasi?"

"Yup, don't know why I didn't think of it before. He can put us right where we want to go."

"I like that Percy, It makes me feel like we've got a chance."

"How's Silena?" I enquire, changing the subject.

"I couldn't be happier Perce, she's the most wonderful girl, although I'll begin to wonder if she keeps hanging out with Clarisse.

"I know what you mean! What an odd couple!"

"What about you and Annabeth?" He smiled

"I'm not seeing Annabeth! She seems to think I'm a useful clown!"

"You told me she kissed you in the Labyrinth!" Beckendorf teased

"Well she thought I was going to die."

"Maybe her true feelings came out for you!" He laughed

"Very funny, she's my best friend, that's all! Stop teasing me!

Beckendorf laughed loudly and slapped me on the back.

"The whole camp is waiting for you two to get together, the Aphrodite cabin has a sweep stake running!" He laughed.

"Really?"

Nah, I'm just messin with ya!" He admitted, grinning like an idiot.

"How's that dragon you found in the forest?" I asked wanting to change the subject.

"Oh man, that's a piece of work! I've got it defending the camp and I can control it with my mind!"

"Is that wise? What if you die?"

"Hmm, I better program some contingency into it, in case the worst happens. I'll do it tomorrow."

A device beeped on Beckendorf's desk and he wandered over to check it out.

"Percy the Princess Andromeda will defiantly be in range tomorrow evening, possibly late morning."

"Damn, I'm going to the beach with Rachael tomorrow. Paul is letting me borrow his car." I moaned.

"Rachael huh?"

"Shuttup. She asked me."

"I guess you don't want me to tell Annabeth then?" He laughed.

"No fear!" I said. He laughed even harder.

I left the Hephaestus Cabin and met Annabeth on the way down to the forest.

"Hey!" I said.

"Hey Seaweed Brain" she said back "Ready for capture the flag?"

"Sure am Moony!"

Annabeth stopped in her tracks.

"What did you call me Big Boy?" She said looking quite dangerously angry.

"Uhh, I dunno, what did I call you?" I asked her. Now quite confused.

"You called me Moony, Seaweed brain! Why?"

"You have got a- wait- uhhh. I don't have any Idea, Annabeth."

"I don't know who you've been talking too but don't you ever call me that again, got it?" She threatened pointing a finger at me.

"Okay, okay! Jeez, keep ya hair on! Wait why did you call me Big Boy?"

"I didn't! She protested.

"You did! You said what did you call me Big Boy?"

Annabeth looked confused and a little uncertain. She looked around guardedly.

"Do you think the Aphrodite cabin is playing games with us?" She asked.

"It's possible, bunch of jokers." I agreed, happy that she had calmed down.

Let's get going Percy, Ares and Apollo are teaming up today so we have our work cut out for us, but I have a plan, and I would like you to stick to it this time. When defending the flag, I'd like you…

I tuned her out. I never understood what she was talking about anyway. So I just walked behind her imagining what she looked like naked. Something I found I was very good at.

**End**

**Acknowledgments**

Thanks for everyone at Fanfiction whose comments kept me going. Sorry about the seven month break, but life throws you a wild card occasionally.


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